From SimpsonDan@aol.com Sat Mar 30 10:22:18 2002
Subject:Re: Another Speakeasy Tube Preamp review

Eric,

Great review - very well written and very helpful. Two questions.

1) How do you control the speed of the Leslie? I assume there is a
footpedal of some kind but you didn't mention it. Did you find a way to
control the Leslie speed from the CX-3? Can't imagine you did, but I've been
surprised before.

2) If you had to summarize your review with one of those little highlights
"Pro and Con" boxes you see in music rags, what would the boxes say. After
reading your review, my topline guess is:

Pros:
The thing the really matters - the sound. Warms up the sound and adds
gain.
Ease of use - rack mount design puts controls at your fingertips and
reduces the extra gear you have to haul and setup.
Flexibility - can use with a 1/4" output to Motion Sound gear or a Leslie,
depending on the gig..
Production quality - unit is handmade with high quality parts and
excellent workmanship.
Service - Speakeasy is a small business owned and operated by Hammond
players, and it has top-quality, very personal customer service.

Cons:
Price - quality is great but you do pay for it.
Hard to get a clean tone at higher volumes.
Getting a great tone takes quite a bit of tweaking.
Front panel jacks - great for some but others may want to keep the front
of their rack free of cables.
Cheesy (literally) yellow stripes on the front of the rack (as shown on
the web page).

Net - If you want to get the best possible Leslie sound from a digital clone
and keep your setup time to a minimum, the rack mount Speakeasy Vintage
Preamp is the cat's meow.

Is that close, Eric? Feel free to modify it - adding or subtracting as you
wish. The last two Cons are obviously mine and not yours. They are, of
course, niggles and only reflect my personal preference. Others may like the
the current panel, and some may legitimately count those issues as Pros.

Note to others - this is not my review as I have not purchased a unit (at
least not yet). I am merely trying to summarize Eric's great review, in part
so I can decide if I am going to bite.

Eric, I wonder if you might post your tweaks on the list, or perhaps send
them to Steve so he can share them with other buyers.

Steve from Speakeasy - are you lurking? Is the model in production yet or
are you still in prototype model? I don't want to turn this forum into a
marketing tool, but we all have an interest in these kind of things or we
wouldn't be here to begin with.

Dan

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