Also, I purchased mine from Kevin Deal at Upscale Audio. Not sure why anyone has a problem with him. He seems like a straight shooter. He offers a return privilege on the Mystere. With most dealers of most other preamps, you own it once they run your credit card. Speaking from personal experience, that can be a painful experience. I have purchased more than one component new that got great reviews and sounded really good in the dealer's listening room...and then is completely underwhelming in my own system. Having no return privilege means selling it used and taking a 40-50% haircut in the process. Not sure that is more appealing than putting in a call to Kevin Deal to get your money back.
Mystere CA 21 Preamp
As far as i know, i think that i'm the first owner of this new preamp. It took me a while to get it, because the company decided to upgrade their already exellent volume potentiometer. Well, to sum it in a few words, this 1850 Euro preamp smashed, YES, smashed everything i tried before with my superb SS amp (basically a Naim amp, that was totally upgraded by Tedy Perdo). I tried around 10 preamps - SS and tubes - between 2000$-6000$, and the Mystere is simply in another league, in a much higher league! For example, It is much more transparent, detailed and dynamic than the VAC Standard MKII, with a more accurate, neutral, and ultimately, more involving sound - and let's remember that the VAC costs almost 3 times more than the Mystere! Most of the preamps that i tried sounded either as decent volume potentiometers or as a blocks between the source and the amp. The Mystere CA 21 makes you to understand, once and for all, what a crucial link is an active preamp. With this preamp in my system (Loudspeakers: Bosendorfer VC 7; Source: Michell Orbe SE; Amp: as mentioned before) the music flows from the speakers with mighty dynamics, rich colors, and low level details, in a huge, but very clear and organized, soundstage, and a very very low noise floor. The music is simply on the verge of a realistic experience! I just can't understand how they priced this so beautiful and heavy (20 kg.) music machine. I think that if the logo on the front of this preamp was "LAMM", you would'nt be surprised.
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