For years I have owned a Simaudio Celeste W4070SE and love it. The only thing that was gnawing at my brain was I had never used the balanced inputs, I used with a Arogon 18K which I sold and now with my Bryston B60 in preamp mode. Both sounded beautiful. I look on CL for balanced preamps all the time and refuse to pay the silly prices on any that do show up. The other day on CL I saw something that looked like a deal a Drawmer MC1.1 which the call a Monitor controller but basically it's a preamp, so I thought why not and bought it. It's quirky at least by traditional hi fi standards. The unit has only 3 inputs but I can work with that, 1 set XLR inputs 1 set RCA switchable line/phono inputs and a 3.5mm input, I wish it were RCA they could have fit them, but for what I payed for it, beggars can't be choosers. A far a outputs 1 set XLR (stereo) 1 XLR mono subwoofer out. and 1 set RCA out. Oh yeah I forgot mention it's also a headphone with its own separate volume control. The unit is the most pro studio vs traditional HiFi I've possibly ever owned though Bryston is popular in both camps and I have owned 3. The MC1.1 in my eyes is cool looking, the unit is smallish but has 2 large volume knobs 1 for pre out 1 for headphones, then 5 push buttons to select inputs and outputs. Here where it gets quirky if one wished to they could have all 3 inputs live at once ! and both outputs as well which does make sense to me. I have the use of a OPPO BDP 105 which is not mine but a great friend is letting me use it. With the exception of the built in phono which isn't special and is easily bettered by my Emotiva SP-1 and crushed by my Six Acoustic York so it's good it's able to be switched to line in. The XLR, RCA line inputs sound damn amazing a very clean window, I haven't tried the 3.5mm input yet but I will. On the XLR inputs on some recordings you don't need much to get it too loud, fortunately the volume controls on both pre out and headphone seem to be very high quality even down to late night listening levels they track perfectly and don't seem to lose information. For 190 dollars CDN I am impressed. I sense a balance DAC on the horizon.
