Vincent Audio SA 32 Hybrid Stereo Preamplifier (Black)

This preamp is everything I wanted. Fits in perfectly with the rest of my equipment Lovely clean and clear sound. Looks great. Quality gear. Highly recommended.

Great preamp. Only caveat I have is the volume control on the remote is a bit too sensitive. You barely push the volume buttons and the sound increases or decreases more than intended. It would be nice if you had a little more play room with the control.

The Vincent SA 32 is a solid, if uninspiring, piece of kit. It sounds fine, even good, and doesn't seem to color the signal much (either a good or bad thing in a preamp, depending on what you want). The number of inputs should be more than adequate for most users, and the double output plus recording out are nice touches, adding flexibility to system layout, etc. Best of all (imo), the SA 32 provides a tone control bypass, for those of us who like what we already have going on with our front end and power amp components.My three frustrations are (mostly) minor but, you know, frustrating:1) The remote control doesn't include power on/off. Why?2) The volume knob on the unit has an LED indicating volume level when adjusting by remote. This LED isn't active when you turn the knob manually, and there's no white dot or line to let you know where you are. Why?3) The SA 32 uses four 6916 tubes in the signal path. As I stated above, the signal path seems to remain generally uncolored by those tubes. That's all fine and good, except that the tubes are all soldered in to the unit. As anyone familiar with tubes will tell you, sometimes tubes fail. Typically, swapping in a new tube is actually somewhat less complicated than screwing in a lightbulb. In this case, Vincent has turned this simple job into, for most users, needing to ship the unit to Vincent to have the tube replaced. Why?The SA 32 is a good unit, reasonably priced and does the job. Honestly, only the soldered-in tubes are a potential dealbreaker, and I'm staring at the SA 32 in my stereo console right this second, so I guess it's something I can live with. If Vincent addressed the three complaints noted above (probably pretty easily), I don't think I'd have any complaints about this unit at all.

This is a fantastic preamp. There aren’t any additional features like a built in DAC or headphone amp. You don’t even get standby power! You are paying strictly for audio quality. The hybrid tube/transistor design is the perfect relaxed, dynamic, yet tight and attacking sound together. Paired with the matching SP-332 amplifier you won’t do any better unless you spend thousands more.

This Vincent preamp is very cool technically. It sounds very bright and crisp and it is a very “No-Frills” as far as features. I had two major issues with it 1) the volume control was terrible. Very little sensitivity to where one position was too soft and the next click was too loud. I spent all my time trying to get the volume comfortable using other component controls. 2). There are no outputs that worked well with my KEF wireless subwoofer. Maybe it was me, but I couldn’t get it to play well with the wireless transmitter and I could not hardwire the sub with my setup. I really didn’t want to give up the Vincent, but couldn’t live with the issues I had.

This preamp is great, but it wasn't what I needed. I contacted the seller, and they helped me right away.

Give this preamp a good source, a good amp, and good speakers and it will not disappoint!! Very nice sounding piece of gear. I have it on some Sonus Faber speakers and streaming into it with an Audiolab 7000 play. Great sound!

I had this and a (twice more expensive) PrimaLuna Evo 100 preamp to compare for replacement of a solid state preamp (B&K PT3 series II). The Vincent sounded quite similar to the B&K, which isn't a bad thing, but the Prima Luna sounded "better." The Vincent was more clinical, even sterile sounding, COMPARED TO the PrimaLuna, which sounded more "liquid" and smoother than either the B&K or Vincent. The Vincent is not a bad preamp at all. In fact, I was thinking of what other system (in my collection of systems) might this fit into. I liked the remote control, the source selecting system - both on the front panel and via remote, the lights on the volume control knob and the source selector switch, the tape out so I can hook up my Burson headphone amp, and the overall gestalt of the unit, but it could not compete with the PrimaLuna, which I decided to keep.Amp: B&K ST2140Speakers: Golden Ear Triton Two PlusSources: Cambridge streamer, Oppo universal disc player, Pro-Ject turntableEars: old and compromised, no doubt