Morrison Elad, Some opinions Please.

I also want to stress once again how quiet it is, and that because of its own minimal amount of "personality", it seems allow the best to come out of any amp that it's used with.

Oops! First sentence I meant here, not hear. Please excuse the other misspellings. I was at work and in a hurry!

I was just thinking about my ELAD..I've owned it for about 14 years. I did a search hear and found this thread and just felt compelled to resurrect it. 
I recall that at the time I bought it, I needed a pre and didn't have a lot of money. Somehow I heard about Don Morrison and the ELAD pre. I read all of the reviews on audioreview.com, then all of the negative backlash, and finally decided to gamble $700.00 and order one. It came beautifully packed with some paperwork and a couple of recipes from Don. (he's quirky)
I loved it right away. I couldn't pin any particular label on it. It didn't sound tubey or transistory. It was smooth and pretty dynamic,certainly quiet, and after all of these years of being left on constantly when I wasn't using another pre, I've never had any problems with it. Even though I was very satisfied with it, I always assumed (and still do) that there were much better sounding preamps out there, so when I had a little money I went looking. First, a Joule Electra LA 100. Very disappointing. Less dynamic, smaller stage, and not as tall. Kind of dull really; and yes, I put in all premium tubes. I was surprised and disappointed, but not shocked really. I sold it and happily returned to the ELAD. 
A couple of years passed and I got the itch again and a bit of money. I found an entry level Lamm Deluxe pre in great shape, sent it to Vlad for a going over. Surely THIS was going to be the deal! Not so. It really wasn't much different than the Joule Electra as I remembered it. Smooth, maybee a little more dynamic, but not as much as the ELAD. Tube majic just wasn't there. I sold it after a few months. After all that I had read about Lamm, that was a shock.
I just bought a used tube pre built by a guy in Seattle, and it's there being worked on, so once again, I'll try and see...
I guess my point is, it's a pretty damn good pre. I saw one for sale a week ago for less than $400.00, and I felt like screaming "buy it someone!", best money you'll ever spend! 


       

Kelly,

As a middle aged (Boy, I hate to admit that) dentist in Florida, I have no reason to "shill" for Morrison-a one man operation in Toronto, Canada. I have never met the man. I simply am a satisfied customer who has owned the Elad for about 2 years.

One final comment:

I have heard the Citation 5.0 preamp. It was a good HT preamp before Dolby Digital hit the market.

I would never consider the Cititation 5.0 a great (or even good) 2 channel preamp. The Morrison will be a major improvement in 2 channel over the Citation.

I also have had a Sim Moon W-5 amp. This is a great amplifier. It will do well with the Morrison.

Selling the Citation 5.0 may be a serious problem for you. I would consider donating the piece, and try writing off as much as possible. The piece new was way overpriced. I have seen folks try to give this sort of piece away. It's not easy because it did not have AC-3.

Peace.

Keith

Folks,

I used a Morrison for 2 years. At $800 new it is a bargain. I have compared it against a lot of preamplifiers.

I challenge anyone who can name a high end preamp for less than 2 times it's price that is better. I'd like to hear from folks that have actually compared this unit to others. AND NOT FROM FOLKS WHO HAVE NEVER EVEN SEEN THIS UNIT IN PERSON. I have compared against Krell, Aragon, Acurus, Monarchy, Classe, and many great passives, and I thought the Morrison was a better unit. I only recently sold my Morrison because I needed more inputs and I wanted to combine my HT and 2 channel seup (in the future). I replaced the Morrison with a SF3SE preamp ($6k retail). The SF3SE is a better preamp... ofc it is more than 7 times the Morrison new.

The only (SS) preamp that I know of that may compete with it (That is less than $1600 retail) is the ADCOM GFP-750 for around $1200. Anyway, I have not heard the Adcom, so I have no opinion about it. Although a friend of mine (who has forgotten more about high end audio than I could ever hope to know) swears by this piece. I trust his judgement ehough to mention it here. It receives rave reviews; however, Adcom does advertise A LOT.

It seems remarkably difficult for companies to do great preamplification for less than $2k. Go figure...

The question I have is: Have you heard an ELAD, ANYONE?
You may not believe some of the stuff Don preaches (I sure do not buy into some of what he says... he acts more fanatical audio than I do about 6 pin I2S [do not get me started]), but I still think he makes a killer preamp for a mere $800.

If you have heard the ELAD that is one thing. If not... please make that clear. Folks that comment on gear that they have not heard... well they should be taken with a grain of perspective salt (as should everyone else).

Anyway, the guy who effectively bought my Morrison conceeded that it beat his Classe CP-45 ($1800 retail) preamp hands down. I told him that I had supreme confidence it would.

Always let your own ears be the judge.

Peace.

Keith
'not a shill'

lmathias: the two posts above this one were likely left by folks who used to be called "shills." in cyberspeak they're known as "sockpuppets." read the threads to which i directed you; the morrison elad is not something about which "one guy had an axe to grind...." let me put it simply: if you buy into the claims of don morrison, you'd better be prepared to buy into his marketing politics, as well. and, if you ever say anything like i just have, expect to be threatened by don's imaginary legal corps. i quiver with anticipation. -kelly

I also love my ELAD and think it is an incredible bargain. There was one guy here who had an axe to grind with Morrison and plastered it all over the audio boards. To each his own.

i own one. it's the absolute greatest bargain in audio. i mean it. call don morrison and talk to him. the elad adds nothing to the sound. anyone who complains about is really complaining about another part of their system. if you like a "tube" sound don't get the elad. it is a solid state,digitally oriented piece of equipment. go to the morrison website and read the bench test results. it exploded a conrad-johnson unit costing 15k.

lmathias: the morrison elad preamp has been the subject of a great deal of discussion and controversy at audiogon. a search on the word "elad" will bring up 33 related threads. searching on "morrison" will give you 65 threads. you might wanna' read through a few of these to see if your questions have already been addressed. if your thirst is not quenched with audiogon’s archives, i suggest you then search those of AA-kelly