we are lucky on this forum to have folks like scott dorsey, john
hardy, dan kennedy, john lagrou, and others who are top pros in their
field. i would like to take advantage of this, and request that you
guys please give the rest of us a "primer" on preamp electronics
design basics.

1. what is the simplest preamp design? ie, what exactly is required
in the circuit and why?

2. what are the basic problems with the simplest possible design?
(noise, fidelity, whatever)

3. what are the approaches to turning the basic design into a
reasonably clean and useable mic preamp? (better parts, additions to
the basic circuit, etc.)

4. what are the primary philosophies of top-end preamp design? ie,
why does a grace preamp sound so different from an HV3 when they are
both designed to be clean and transparent, or why tubes vs
transformers for more "colored" preamp dsigns?