Scarlett vs Clarett - Demo Video

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I think this is a tricky one because not all the audible difference can be attributed to the preamps themselves. He's comparing two different performances, and so there would be differences there even without changing the preamp. In that sense, the results are a bit misleading. What I would have done is wired the mics with Y cables into both pres at the same time to capture the SAME performance through both pres.
The other thing I noticed was that the differences between the two are far smaller when listening in mono....especially the first one (overheads only) and solo kick, which actually moves a bit in the stereo field. So there's something funny going on with the mixing there.

The "air" feature which is a hi shelf EQ also sounds like a bigger difference than it is because it increases the bleed from the other drums at HF. If you put a hi shelf on the Scarlett you'd get the same thing.

I'd say there are very slight audible differences but I think this video makes them seem much much larger than they actually are. I would be interested in hearing a reamping test, which would have a much higher validity.

Anyone else hear that nasty 420 Hz ringing in his narration? Yikes.

I have this Clarett 8pre, and that drum sample i posted earlier were thru it. I think its really clean sounding pre. What goes in, comes out. Air mode also pretty good.

Hexspa If you're more interested i can record some speech, shaker, tambo etc through it.

Fair points, Ethan. I haven't your experience but I'm on the fence anyway Indeed, the audio has been compressed twice. I could share .wav links but perhaps the premise is flawed from the start. To be sure, there were many critical errors in their demonstration to include: differing performances, panning issues as well as level imbalances.  Who knows what other skeletons might be lurking in their mic closet?

On one hand, I feel the differences are obvious and that I could bet a domestic 6 pack I could pass an ABX with at least 80% accuracy. On the other hand, being the part-time gear slut that I am, I watch a lot of demo videos and, using the same basic models of equipment, I can get a very different impression of a piece of gear based on other factors like microphone distance, room quality, camera lighting (for those awesome mirrorless cameras I'm eyeing), etc.

Thank you for that snippet regarding preamp shootouts - I was not aware. I wonder if we can message these guys and convince them to redo their demo - Winer Style!

And, yeah, all the bigger files are the Clarett. Not because the preamps give more data but because the drummer slowed down as he played so I had to shorten the Scarlett examples, which were always first, to make them loop correctly.