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Check out the demeter and kern preamps also. I just did a review of the ampeg svp-pro which I love it to death . The review is at the bottom of the amps page also the alembic f1x and the swr pre. To me the cleanest of all is the swr but its not thick and fat like the others just my opinion. Sounds like good sounding system , what type of music do you play?

 

Keep in mind the F2B lacks a few features that other bass preamps have, most notably no XLR outputs for either a DI or for driving your power amp.

The F1X does have the DI (but no XLR for the power amp), plus a "deep" bass boost switch and a crossover for biamping but for some reason, Alembic chose to use a solid state circuit to drive the final output while the F2B uses a tube stage there instead. Otherwise, the preamps use the same circuit although the F2B has two channels so can be used as a stereo preamp.

As far as used ones, just keep your eyes peeled. I see F2B and F1X pres at various online dealers as well as online classifieds pretty regularly. Expect to pay $400 or so, brand new ones can be had for $600,

 

Sorry, that is not quite correct. I own an F-1X and use the XLR out exclusively to drive the power amp chain. My signal chain sequence is: balanced F-1X xlr to Rane EQ to Rane crossover and split to QSC power amps. The F-1X XLR is dead quiet and can be either Pre or Post EQ. The entire signal chain from preamp to power amps is balanced to eliminate hum. My need for DI is almost never, so I will have to use a DI at the preamp input when I need one.

I don't use the F-1X built in crossover for two reasons. First, it is unbalanced. Second the crossover slope is 12 dB per octave compared to the superior 24 dB Linkwitz-Riley circuit used by the Rane crossover.

The "deep" switch appears to scoop the mids which gives me kind of a hollow sound. I find it much easier to turn up the bass EQ a tad. I run the Bass-Mid-Treble set at 2-10-2 which is about as close to flat as you can get. The bass and treble controls are Boost Only, and the mid control is Cut Only.

FWIW, my rig crosses over at 100 Hz to a pair of JBL E110 10" from a pair of 15" Rockford subwoofers. I get a tremendous amount of phat and buttery bass at 31 Hz without mud. My variation in tones comes from the RB5 bass switches and pickup configurations, not from the amp.

 

No kidding. Only one XLR. Like I said

Plus it's on the front while most power amps have theirs on the back. Wicked convenient

The Alembic sounds great but it's about as bare bones in terms of features as you can get.

 

The f1x is a good sounding pre, it was my first choice until the ampeg svp-pro. The only reason I went with the ampeg was more features, footswitchable tuner and eq for a totally different sound and I play some hard stuff and easy stuff but mainly heavy rock not metal and the sound fits most of what I do if not all. I do like the kern also but a little steep for the sound imo.

 

I'd still like to hear an SWR Interstellar Overdrive to see if it is something radically different from my F-1X. One could have both in their rack with a small switch to divert the XLR output of each to the active signal chain.