I've owned one for ~ 5 years or so and am very happy with it. At the time I was trying various preamps to mate with my Magico S1s and Pass X250.8. I tried various brands of preamps and a few DACs direct to the Pass and was still searching when a demo unit popped up for sale.
After reading a few of the reviews on it at the time I decided to give it a go just to see if spending decent money on a preamp (to be used with a digital source only) was worth it. It mated beautifully with my Pass amp and shocked me in how much a difference it made to my system's sound quality and ultimately my enjoyment overall.
It is built like a tank (it comes with 10 years of warranty...) and has worked perfectly for me while being on continuously; the biggest complement I have for it is that after trying a few pretty decent DACs direct (e.g. Berkeley and a Bricasti) direct to my amp, I still prefer it in my audio chain. I found it might give up just a touch of resolution compared to those DACs direct, but it added a 3d like image and soundscape that makes the music sound more real to me. It also offers very good dynamics and bass. I think I found the Berkeley direct may have seemed a touch faster/dynamic, but I found it added more dynamics than with the Bricasti direct.
So in terms of coloration or masking of the sound (many complaints folks have when adding a preamp) I have a couple good benchmarks (based on my ears...) that lets me believe its tone and musical color is pretty much spot on with how I hear these DACs direct in my system. That gives me a level of confidence when trying different amps or DACs with the preamp that it is not shading/changing what I hear from those components. I've tried 4 different amps and likely 5 different DACs with this preamp and it still remains the bedrock of my system.
Is it worth the cost, that is a question for you to answer, and I would suggest as others to look for a used one or demo unit.
Relatively speaking, comparing what differences I hear with cables and the various components (DACs and Amps) I've tried over the years it has been certainly worth it for me based on what I paid for the demo.
The Bricasti has an excellent balanced analog output
(I run all balanced)
and after hearing it direct, if I was starting over and didn't already own the preamp, I would consider to go with the Bricasti direct. But then I think what happens when I replace that DAC (which I always do) if the next DAC doesn't have a variable output or one that sounds as good, then I need to buy the preamp again.... I've already moved on from the Bricasti and my current DAC doesn't have a variable output, so it is not such crazy thinking after all :)
Hope that helps, and again this is all my findings based on my system and ears...
Cheers
