Hi,

just bought a dual Broadhurst Gardens BG1 preamp from DAV Electronics in London. Mick Hinton, the company owner, used to work as in-house engineer for the famous Decca Studios, and now markets the technology he's developed for Decca under the DAV Electronics moniker (www.davelectronics.com).
The BG 1 preamp I have here sounds excellent on pretty much anything that's thrown at it, with a very honest, perhaps slightly "larger-than-life" character. It doesn't look very flash, but it sound great. I haven't had the opportunity to make many A/B comparisons, so I was wondering if there was anyone on this forum who has worked with the BG alongside other good preamps.
I would love to hear a few side-by-side comparison results!

Cheers,

Recky

Bad link Recky ..this one works:
http://www.davelectronics.com/

I use a BG1 and absolutely love it. I do exclusively jazz & classical.

I always wondered hows the DAV doing against other clean pres like hardy, millennia, daking etc...

I am wondering the same thing. I've been leaning towards Millennia HV-3C, but if I could save that much money...

Purchase the DAV Electronics BG#1 and call it a day.
We have used DAV Electronics mic amps for 5 years and they are incredible!

They are simple, well engineered, well designed Decca mic amps.
End of story.

Good day!

Yep,

i agree, Save yourself some money and buy the dav. I have pre's costing twice the price and i still much prefer the dav. The BG1 is a great pre and the nicest sounding one ive bought to date.


chris. thumbsup

How much is the BG-1?

Call DAV Electronics and ask. The company accepts checks in US $ as well as wire transfers in UK Pounds.

I believe the unit is around $625.00-650.00 including shipping.

sound is EASILY as good as or better than Millenia. Also not clinical sounding.

It IS astoundingly good and totally unadvertised!

If you're a professional, you'll buy it today.

Thankyasomuch,
Plush

That is a darn good price. I will investigate further. Thanks Plush, much appreciated.

I have a friend who uses one.
Unfortunately, he uses it for things like solo violin, which is not applicable to my use. I was interested to hear how it might sound for drums.
He absolutely loves it though.

I just bought a BG2 (the 4 channel model) and it was $1400 shipped. The BG1 is $630 shipped.

I'm rapidly expanding my preamp universe.
I have a BG-1 which is completely satisfactory.
Drumkits are clear and with enough dynamics and spacing.
The microphone is translated as well.

The slut in me wants a Seventh Circle rack. (a full one)
but maybe it will be another DAV?

Anybody tried their other stuff?

OK, just ordered a BG-1. Thanks for the info, and y'all better not be lying.

I just found out today that DAV Electronics now takes PayPal.
This makes it easier to buy and avoids the wire transfer ripoff.


If you're a professional, you'll buy one today!

Best Wishes,

Plushy

I wonder what their compressor and EQ is all about. I think I might dive in for the BG-1 pre.

I highly disagree. Nothing special about this mic pre.
regards,
D.Bock

Greetings Mic Expert!

I certainly understand that the BG range may not be your preference or your favorite.
Each to their own.

The BG#1 and BG#2 are mic amps that are built around a circuit from the mid 1970's.

It was the concensus of the Decca recording team (each a famous engineer who can use anything) selected as the best sounding from among all the mic amps from any era of Decca. This mic amp is huge in the classical arena or any acoustic recording scenario.

There's little snob appeal here since the box sells for $625.00.


We have used them for some 5 years and find them to be really outstanding. Are they the world's best mic amp? Perhaps not.

But they sound awfully close to the world's best mic amps ( read ie. EAR 824)

We are free to differ. However, if you will be proposing that a clinical sounding mic amp will be preferable, the divide between us will be very wide indeed.

Good Day from Chicago,

Plushy

So are you saying this mic pre will go perfectly with troyes ifet7?


-bee

This is exactly where we disagree.
EAR824 = good
DAV = NOTHING CLOSE
I'll chalk it up to different applications, expectations, & goals we might have from a mic pre but your insistance that they are nearly the same cannot be unchallenged.
BTW, cost is totally irrelevant, I think the EAR is HIDEOUSLY priced.
regards,
D.Bock

Dear Mr. DBock,

Well, if you're going to be taken seriously, you're going to need to actually describe what you find lacking in the DAV mics amps. simply stating that they are no good is
not tapping into your knowledge or experience.

And, horrors of horrors, perhaps you will state, outright, your mic amp preferences.

Yes, we have both the EAR and multiple DAV mic amps here and they sound VERY close.

Thankyasomuch,
cordially,

Hudsonek

Using the same decriptors you use, I would repeat myself by saying: they sound nothing alike.
I'm no more worried about being taken seriously than you are.
Simply put, the 824(ear) outputs the microphone, the dav outputs an electronic version of the microphone.
It could even be viewed as a classic case of "if it seems to good to be true it is". I certainly have no objection to a pre that performs as well as the 824 for ANY amount of $$ less than they cost, especially one that's 1/5th the price, size & weight, but it's unfortunately not true yet (to my knowledge) and certainly the dav does not fill those shoes.
Again, application may cause your results to differ.
regards,
D.Bock

Mr. Bock,

Well, we'll just leave it at that. (your above non specific commentary)

Our application for the BG #1 is classical music--various set-ups and various complexities of waveform--to wit:

orchestra main pair
orchestra 4 mics across the front
chorus spots
solo cello--Bach suites
soloist singer spots
organ
chorus
piano ORTF or A-B pair
etc.

All are rendered in excellent neutral tonal quality and resolution of the 3D soundstage is very good.

Sound is characterized as weighty and a cohesisve with a "gluing/blending" effect imparted by the mic amp.

I find it quite pleasant

Sir, we will be adding more DAV mic amps for an upcoming major contract to record a big league orchestra. I guess they'll just have to live with the less than great sound!

Can we certainly agree on one thing regarding the EAR and the DAV units?
That would be that BOTH are unadvertised--I ithink we can at least agree
on that.


Oh my word--my ears are no good I guess.

The difference between some people and me is that I really DO TRUST my ears.


Thankyasomuch,

Hudsonek

I have 2 BG1s. I record mostly non-classical acoustic music (guitars, fiddles, accordeons, voice etc). These fit very well to my needs. Full sound, no hyped highs. Very usable with all my mics (r84, 103, 480, nt5, ntk, 4061, ml52) on various sources. For ribbons i tend to choose dacs micamp, but not for the sound, mainly because it has a separate non-phantom input. r84 - bg1 is a great combo on big mandolin sound (if you want mandolin to sound big?)! bg1 also made 103 a lot better mic for many applications. They have 3db stepped rotary switches, which makes stereo gain adjustment fast and simple.
Thanks for all who suggested this amp for me!

terveisin,
olli

Unh-hunh. . .

it's happened before and will happen again.
I thought we had agreed that the 824 was excellent. Certainly the most neutral commercial unit I've heard, with Martek running in 2nd. Your words not mine but I'm guessing you didn't mean it the way you wrote it.
To further clarify my dav experiences that lead to my opinion, on male close up rock vocals, it was a no brainer to use the824 not dav, as the dav added unpleasant upper mids (4kHz ouch). I started becoming suspicious of dav. On a ribbon mic on horns I scrambled to get a Neve 1272 in place of dav. At this point my suspicions were fully aroused and I oped dav up, which I had not done previously. Inside I found the usual chip & psu suspects that are found in countless other boxes, and I was relieved: there was an electrical reason for what I was hearing. So if you want to reccomend that pre, I have no problem with it but it cannot be compared as on par with an 824 as the circuit topology differences are justifications for the great sonic differences.
peace,
David B.

Anyone tried DAVs alongside DACs or Amek or other clean pres?
Hope to post a comparision myself soon.
got some V676a and Neumann coming.. and a guitar player.
To me DAV is not the holy grail, but another flavour.
I can assure you that it instantly retired all semi pro stuff, like my VLZ mackies, when I first connected it..
But looking back this is not really strange.
One point I'd like to make is that the DAV seems to work well with most dynamic and M7 based microphones. Also I use it with an Eckmiller passive EQ. Reamping.
Another good point of the BG-1 is that it lends itself to be placed in the recording room. It is small, built like a tank, and has a hot enough output. I guess that is how you guys use it for recording orchestra.
As I like clean pres that don't cost horrendous amounts of money I'm open to suggestions..
NEVER even heard E.A.R. pre, but I'm curious: Just for funs sake: do any of you to care for posting some WAVs (24bit?? heh )
BTW I think preamps are like girls, it's good that everybody has a different favourite..

How do the DACS and the DAV compare, in your opinion?

The BG1 was designed for classical recording. This probably explains why it sucks on rock vocals - the most highly prized pres for rock are prized for their colour, not neutrality. You wouldn't record an orchestra through an Avalon...

DBock wrote:". . .Inside I found the usual chip & psu suspects that are found in countless other boxes, and I was relieved: there was an electrical reason for what I was hearing. . ."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes the usual suspects are inside----AND they are surrounded by a properly engineered analog front end and back end with good power supply.

Good design triumphs again! Hey you in Hell-A!---sorry that the BG does not suit the current "mic amp as fashion" ( or cock extender) paradigm. We in Chicago are totally for real!

When you're as famous as the Decca engineers who recorded the Solti/Mahler series with BG, give a call.