Hey now... you made a strongly worded opinion and now you need to back it up!
Arguing statistical significance and semantics with Sypder isn't going to get us any closer to the answer.
>>>> There is no definitive answer. There's tons of reasons why people end up with certain pieces of gear, and its not unlikely that each of us weighs the various factors differently when deciding what to purchase. Concerning "arguing statistical significance," I'm not sure what argument this refers to. I'm certainly not trying to ram my opinion of the Aerco down anyone's throat, nor am I the one who responded to (my) non-favorable post on the Aerco w/ a statement about previous comps being the reasons for this goups's affinity for the preamp. My intention wasn't to nickle and dime Syper on semantics. We can only respond to statements as they appear on the page. I'm not going to reply based on what I assume someone itended to say. That doesn't do anything to further a discussion and in my experience usually leads to a uselss pissing match.
I would love it if you were to follow-up this discussion with, as asked by 11, info on how many times you have run the aerco and with what gear?
>>> Ok. One of my local taper buddies had an Aerco for many years. I've heard dozens of recordings he made with that preamp, as well as a couple we made together (using the Aerco.) Most of his tapes were made w/ AKG 461 mics, but he also did a bunch with his old pair of Sennhesier 441, a pair of Neumann KM184 and a pair of Gefell M210. The ones we made together were done w/ Schoeps MK4 mics. Within our little taping community there were also guys with Sonosax(s) and Lunatec V2(s). I've heard many recordings done with those two preamps, using one of the afforementioned sets of mics. (I've heard many Sax and V2 recordings done with other mics, but that's not really relevant here.)
We can certainly do another comp on the forums here, but until there's something for us to listen to, I have to support Spyder, 11, and the others that have a fair amount of love for the Aerco. It's a great pre and I don't think I would describe it as 'a step above the mv100," but the proof is in the sound comps!
>>>> I'm certainly not trying to convince anyone that the Aerco sucks and/or they'd be better off using something else. In my original post I simply shared my opinion of the preamp, based on experience. I don't mean to sound crass, but it's of little concern to me that others here share (or don't share) my opinions on gear. I mean, if we all had the same thoughts on gear this forum would be pretty boring.