[Tom Mitchell]

I’ve had my Ultra 4M for 5 weeks, listening only on the weekends. I have about 75 hours on it now, I’d estimate.

My initial impressions were very positive: dynamic, quiet and very musical. Since then, the Ultra 4M has gotten better in all respects, not dramatically, because Lloyd auditioned it extensively before sending it out. You won’t get a unit from him that doesn’t sound right, I’d speculate, simply because he is so thorough in what he does.

What strikes me most about the Ultra 4M, which replaced an Audio Research SP-3A-1, is that many CDs that sounded bad on the ARC preamp (and for which I used the SP-3A-1’s tone controls to compensate) sound very listenable on the Ultra 4M. I worried that I would miss tone controls when I ordered the Ultra 4M, but no more—I haven’t missed them at all.

The Ultra 4M allows that elusive window into the music that lets me relax and enjoy the performance. Detail is excellent, but not overly analytical. The soundstage, on those few recordings that have veridical spatial qualities, is wide and deep. Timbre of instrumnets is true to life. In short, nothing the Ultra 4M does offends my ears.

I haven’t listened to many records through the phono section, but those that I have listened to struck me the same way. Again, records that I used tone controls with on the Audio Research preamp don’t seem to need compensation through the Ultra 4M. It has more gain than the Audio Research and is quieter. (In fairness to ARC, my SP-3A-1 is due for a reconditioning after almost 30 years, but it would have cost me twice as much to have the ARC factory recondition it than to buy Lloyd’s Ultra 4M.)

To put my remarks in context, my system is composed of: Cambridge Audio D-500 CD player, the Ultra 4M, a Decware Zen SE-84C amplifier, and vintage University 6200 full-range 12” drivers in Electro-Voice Aristocrat cornerhorn enclosures. Phono cartridge is a Denon DL-110 high output moving coil.

Am I satisfied with the Ultra 4M? I’m delighted. Would I deal with Lloyd again? In a heartbeat.

Tom Mitchell

[JoshK]

People talk about about great deals in hi-fi, or price to performance ratio being the best when talking about $2000 components, $400 cables, etc.  But here is a preamp where you can get really hi-end glorious musical sound from for about the same price as those cables.  MAD is my vote for best bang for the buck, heck maybe even best product contention at any reasonable price.  

A couple of the local audiophile club guys popped in for an extended listen a few Saturdays ago and came away salivating for a MAD preamp (had a couple others to play with).  So it isn't just me.

[Tom Mitchell]

This is an update to my comments of March 16.

I’ve had the Ultra 4m in my system since early February. It has worked flawlessly. It’s extremely quiet and it sounds like … music.

Soundstaging is wide and remarkably deep with my less than ideal speaker placement (I have cornerhorns that are really too far apart for optimal depth).

As I said earlier, my only reservation was that I would be giving up tone controls with the Ultra 4m. But in over four months of listening, I have seldom felt the urge to alter the equalization of a recording. And the few times I did, it was with a recording so bad that different equalization could not compensate for its poor quality (I have a second system with tone controls that bears this out).

The phono section, too, is able to recreate the musical event without causing me to want to make adjustments to tonality. Recordings I’ve had since the ‘60s that sounded bass heavy on every system I’ve put together, now sound much better balanced. Edgy treble is gone, too. And the gain from the phono section is plenty for the high output moving coil cartridge I’m using, which was not true with the ARC SP-3A-1 preamp I’d been using.

My expectations for the Ultra 4m have been far exceeded. If you are in the market for a new preamp, do yourself a favor and give Lloyd a call or an e-mail before you make a decision. (And, no, I am not a relative. I learned of Lloyd’s products only last December.)

[Brad]

I'd agree with you.

The preamp is remarkably quiet.
The phono stage was very nice as well.  

All in 2 little boxes for less than $500......
Plus Dr. Lloyd gives you a head start on tube rolling