The Grace 101 powered up through a wall-wart power supply. I have no gripes about the wall wart. I understand the cost savings. Michael Grace assured me that the wall wart did not impact on sound.

Upon unpacking the unit, I gave the 101 a couple quick tryouts to satisfy my curiosity. First, I plugged a Studio Projects C1 large diaphragm condenser mic into the Grace. The Grace complimented the mic immediately. I thought of the Grace as being open and clean. Sounds seemed natural. I thought the sound to be three dimensional.

Second, I plugged my Music Man Sabre bass into the Grace's high impedance instrument input on the front. I found the sound to be neutral. I found the Grace to have a flat frequency response on the bass but it kind of sounded tilted to the low end and diminished at higher frequencies.

I felt good about the Grace 101 so I decided I needed to put it in the rack. I used a Raxxess universal 1U rack shelf to mount the Grace 101. I got over my initial enthusiasm and got down to actual use.

After five months of use, the Grace has carved out a niche here at my humble studio. First, it puts a decent image in the monitors. It's in the middle of the spectrum as far as image size. Where does the Grace fall in the sonic pallet? I think of its color as being like a photorealistic painting. The color is exactly what goes in. However, somehow the Grace 101 seems to take the source and make it sound "more" real.

I've had good luck plugging a Shure SM58 into the 101 and letting the singer monitor through the speakers. Vocalists comment on how they can hear themselves and their mics in a different and satisfying light with the Grace. However, a few of them have found that the little extra realism that the Grace puts across is not suitable for every voice as its realism doesn't compliment everything.

My only real complaint with the Grace is that it is a single-channel mic preamp. I prefer two-channnel mic'ing in a lot of situations. So, at my studio, it gets relegated to vocals and to DI use with some calls for amp mic'ing. However, the Grace 101 can serve as a home studio's gold channel and deliver pro results in a variety of mic'ing and DI situations.

The Bottom Line: MSRP $695 with USA street price under $600. A good choice as a first quality mic preamp. Recommended.

Audio Sample: "No He Podido Encontrar" by Grupo Rival was recorded through a Grace 101 mic pre. Please visit Grupo Rival's website.

Link relating to this review: Grace Design