From the Vault

This amp has what's needed to deliver the weight and power of everything from heavy metal to reggae, yes, even Wagner. lt has the ability to provide body and solidity without sounding bass-heavy and without sounding bloated; the latter characteristic would rob the spatial portrayal of air between instruments, making them larger than life. Bottom-end control was exemplary, damped without sounding dry or artificial, but the upper-mid/lower-treble could have used a trace of tube-like sweetening.

At high levels, the CTA 80 lost a bit to the MVT in its ability to resolve the low level information on some CDs (such as the hilarious California Project from Telarc) but listeners who place power and energy above detail won't mind this slight sacrifice. In the case of that particular CD, there's a need for both delicacy and power, but the power wins out when you come to tracks like 'Surfin' USA', with the incessant metronome of an OTT bass drum throughout the track.

Wound Up
If you have an easily-confused ear, you'll only have to be wary of one aspect of the Deltec CTA 80's behaviour. When it's really wound up – to levels much higher than I prefer, but which are typical for some of the closet head-bangers that people this hobby – the sound on multitracked recordings gets a bit crowded. Part of it is the aforementioned loss of some low-level details, but then again you do enjoy a feeling of energy that can make up for this.

I don't want to label this a 'rock' preamp and the MVT a 'classical' preamp, because night-and-day labelling makes it sound like they're wildly different – and they're not. The differences are subtle enough to guarantee that both products deserve placement in the same (upper) performance league, but the careful listener will form a preference.

Knowing that – in absolute terms – one design favoured delicate material and the other favoured meatier stuff, I chose to feed both preamps the same tracks (one of each genre) a number of times. The aim in doing this was to see if I could undermine what was starting to look like a yin/yang situation when in reality it should have been varying shades of grey.

Decisions, Decisions
The two final test tracks selected were 'Keep On Tryin”, from Poco's Head Over Heels LP, and Juice Newton's version of 'Queen Of Hearts' from the LP Juice. I chose these because neither represented such ludicrous extremes as to guarantee the 'failure' of a given preamp with a given track.

The Poco song, five voices and a lone guitar, should have been the MVT's baby, while the Newton track, being a straight-ahead rocker 'made delicate' because of the crystal-clear female lead vocal, should be right down the CTA 80's street. The two tracks overlap, though, by virtue of Newton's voice and Poco's rich – if solo – acoustic guitar.

I hate to admit it, but both preamps adhered to the stereotype I've imposed. The MVT cut out each voice into its own space, placed the guitar specifically in the firmament, and sounded as open as I've ever heard this recording. Alternatively, it came very near the sibilance threshold, remaining just on the right side of it but leaving me nervous enough to expect the dreaded spitting. There was also some of the full-bodied resonance missing from the guitar.

On the other hand, the CTA 80 did a better job with the guitar, showing it as rich and mellow. It kept the sibilance at bay, but it lacked the air of the MVT, making it harder to separate the voices. The MVT gave a wider soundstage, the CTA 80 a deeper portrayal.

The Juice Newton song, an over-eq'd studio creation full of scintillating transients, rich plucked bass, and what sounds like a wall of guitars, contains a nifty little passage where all instruments, bar bass drum and vocals, stop. This challenges systems in the areas of dynamic recovery, power delivery, and detail. There's enough in the way of delicacy to make life difficult, especially as Newton's voice is well to the fore and as far removed from a Daltrey or a Plant as such rocking material would ordinarily require.

Loud And Clear
The CTA 80 had a field day with this one, 'impact' being the word that springs to mind. The plucked bass was as solid and tangible as could be desired, the percussion had the crispness and the weight needed to give the work body, and the guitar break came through loud and clear. When the 'almost a cappella' break came along, the CTA 80 did a marvellous job with voices-vs-drum, but it had a thick sound in comparison with the much leaner balance of the MVT. The MVT did a better job of keeping the song's constituent parts from fighting for space, but it lacked a bit of the weight needed to turn you into an equivalent of the Maxell man.

Neither preamp failed to make wholly enjoyable music, and I want to stress that the criticisms are of the nit-picking variety. Both are excellent in their own ways, both justify their price tags, and both auger well for the consumer who simply cannot afford the megabucks offerings. Though it will irritate some of you, I have to say that they're actually fantastic value for money.