I'm auditioning one of these right now and unfortunately I'm just not hearing what I should compared to a No. 380S if the reviews are correct.

Rather than hearing tighter bass and an expanded, more airy high end, I'm hearing better bass but a slightly rolled off high end. Transients lose their impact, sort of like the difference you hear with a conventional speaker with the grille cloth on and off.

I've tried a variety of cables, and running my sources single ended and balanced with no real change to the difference in high frequency "attack."

Anyone else had the chance to audition one that can comment? I don't think it's anything you would necessarily notice unless you were comparing it directly to another preamp, but the difference is certainly noticeable when comparing it against the No. 380S.

Don't get me wrong, the soundstage and instrument placement is certainly better with the No. 326S as compared to the No. 380S, but hearing all cymbals sound as if they were played with a drumstick wrapped in felt is both disturbing and something I don't think reviewers would be crowing about unless they've all lost their extreme HF hearing. :D

How many hours do you have on the 326?

I'm not sure, but it's a demo unit from my dealer.

It was used in the Mark Levinson room at the recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, so it must have at least a few weeks of burn-in on it.

I know with my 32 it took awhile for it to open up. It also needed to be plugged in, either in ON or standby for a few days for it to perform its best. It sounds like the 326 you are using has some miles on it though; not sure. I would have thought it would be better all around than the 380.

So did I, which is why I'm confused by what I've been hearing from it.

It's been plugged in since Saturday afternoon, so I know that's not it.

I can definitely hear areas of improvement with the 326 but to use an overused audio reviewer term, I certainly didn't expect it to add a layer of "haze" over the high end.

I'm thinking of returning it to the dealer on Friday, so perhaps I'll take my demo SACD with me and compare it to some other preamps in an effort to determine whether it's just bad in some way.

I dropped a line to Mark Levinson on Sunday night but haven't heard back from them as of yet. :(

I keep hoping I'll return home and it will turn out to be a burn-in issue such that the missing detail is just there, but no such luck as of yet.