Black Lion Audio 1073 Clone

[derekmoffat]

http://www.altomusic.com/shop/Black-Lion-Audio-Dizengoff-D173--Pre-Order-_pid113188.am

Not bad for $450! Hopefully they sound killer.. haven't heard BLA stuff myself.

 

[Revson]

Their B12a's have gotten pretty good reviews and I can only imagine these will too.

 

[Trevoire520]

I'm sure one of the guys on here (contra studio?) just bought a pair of the Black Lion API clones the other day. Would be interested to hear a comparison of them compared to stock interface pre's or even some real API's.

I can certainly see myself having a pair of BLA API's and a pair of BLA 1073's in a few months.

 

[egan.]

I believe these are probably decent but I'm skeptical about the accuracy of this or the 312 clone given that they sell for less than the cost of the parts for an actual clone. That doesn't mean they aren't good but it certainly suggests major changes/substitutions/omissions from the original designs. Ultimately sounds good=good though.

 

[~BURNY~]

What's annoys me is:
36dB of headroom (10dB higher than the original design)
Cinemag designed input transformers (better than original spec)

If you want clean headroom, why would you want a neve clone when it's precisely their relative "lack" of performance that gives them a unique flavor.
That's bullshit.

 

[006]

What's annoys me is:
36dB of headroom (10dB higher than the original design)
Cinemag designed input transformers (better than original spec)

If you want clean headroom, why would you want a neve clone when it's precisely their relative "lack" of performance that gives them a unique flavor.
That's bullshit.

I have to agree with this. One of the points of having an API or Neve style preamp is the favorable, and characteristic, drive you can get from them.

 

[egan.]

The "Better than original spec" claim they're using is pretty laughable. I understand that this could easily be true technically but in reality it's exactly as burny stated.

Also, this isn't much of a selling point as a clone (again, they may be awesome for what they are):

 

[rispsira]

i got all excited and shit oh well but you guys have a point.. still might turn out to be good tho who knows

 

[Trevoire520]

I've no illusions that it's going to sound exactly like a real API. But I'm sure it'll still be a very good preamp for those on a budget.

 

[006]

Yeah, nobody is saying it sucks or anything, just that the claims that BLA makes are to be taken with a grain of salt. From all the reviews and everything, the BLA API clone is great, pretty much everything they put out is.