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I've been fortunate to have had a plethora of excellent recording equipment come through the Winding Path Media studio over the last six years. Throughout this time, I've had the pleasure of using some gear from Avalon. I am an enormous fan of the VT737SP channel strip and was excited to review the V5 Dl/ preamp/re-amplifier, especially considering its very reasonable price point for this type of Class A equipment.
With a street price of slightly over $1,000 CDN, the V5 does have some similarly priced competition offering Class A design. A few things, however, immediately set the V5 above and beyond very respectable competitors.
First and foremost,the ability to use the V5 as a transformer-isolated re-amplification box adds tremendous value. In addition to being a microphone and instrument preamplifier, the V5 can convert a line level signal to a -18dB instrument level signal, properly matched for being sent back out to an instrument amplifier.
For those unfamiliar with re-amping, it is a technique often employed by studios in which a previously-recorded performance is sent back out and converted to an instrument-level signal to be re-recorded through other amps or effects. It's a great production tool when building layered guitar tones...