Art Dudley reviewed the EAR 868's big bother, the 912 pre-amp. He said it was the first pre-amp he had heard in a long time that filled him with lust, that it rivaled his Shindo Monbrison ($12,9000). The 868 and 912 were both designed and built by Tim de Paravicini, the two pre-amps sharing a number of design features.
Contrary to the opinion expressed directly above, Paravicini and his designs have a strong cult-sized fan base amongst hi-fi aficionados with deeper roots (and perhaps a better command of the English language ;-) than he. Paravicini's clients include Pink Floyd Studios in England, Water Lily Records in California (whose recordings feature state-of-the-art sound quality, and have been awarded Grammy's for engineering), and Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.
