Allnic Audio H-3000 LCR Reference Phono Preamplifier Review

The Midrange and Top-end
The upper midrange and top-end of the Allnic is truly beautiful. With good recordings, it’s pretty, fluidic, sweet, with lots of presence, and just plain beautiful. You do need to know though that the H-3000 is not quite as forgiving of bright recordings as some tube preamps. Still, it does not make them where I don’t won’t to listen to them at all.

The midrange and lower midrange is equally magical with the H-3000. It has to do with breathing life into recorded music. Small differences can be heard in voices and breathing; instruments have a rich harmonic structure, yet they are clearer than I have ever heard. This magic is very similar in sound to that of the very best 300B SET amps. Friends, there really can be magic in those glass bottles and Mr. Park surely lets you hear it with the H-3000.

Not only can you hear the magic I have described above. It makes it very hard to take notes when doing a review because before you know it, you have been drawn into listening to the music in a way that makes you forget everything else. It allows you to listen deep into the emotions of music. One of the things I really like about great valve products and often talk about it, is when voices take on an almost scary real sound quality. This phono preamp helps my system to do this as well or better than I have ever heard.

Let’s talk about the Bass
It’s in the reproduction of the lower midrange and bass that gets me really excited about this phono preamp. It’s so natural, so fast, so powerful, and yet it never jumps out at you and says “I’ve got great bass.” Instead it just lets drums sound like drums, basses sound like bases, and best of all, music to sound like music. One of the most important things in natural sounding bass is texture and air. They are both in abundance with the H-3000. Overall, the effect can be almost hypnotic.

I have to admit I was shocked. I already thought the bass was one of the strongest points in my system. I would have had no idea it could be improved upon in such a way. I would have believed you could give me more bass, but I was shocked to get better bass. The H-3000 reproduces drums, acoustical and electric basses with incredible impact; a fundamental rightness that I have not heard in my system. The amazing thing was that it allowed you to hear this air and texture without even the slightest hint of boom, looseness, or hangover in the bass or mid-bass. This incredible characteristic sound of the bass was carried all the way up into the upper mid-bass. It gives you quick fast attacks followed by beautiful full decay that lets you hear different layers of the timber of the instruments. I found the bass of the H-3000 quite beguiling.

Micro-dynamics and PRaT
This is another area where the H-3000 excels. It has lightening fast micro-dynamics and transients. When you combine this with the bass and mid-bass speed and power, plus its great dynamics, you get a phono preamp with exceptional PRaT. This is a phono preamp that draws you in and makes you tap your feet and everything else music does for me.