The ca21 is a great preamp. I used to own an Aesthetix Calypso. Side by side, the Mystere has a wider soundstage and deeper, better quality bass than the Calypso. The Mystere matches the mid-range of the Calypso, the Calpyso's strongest attribute. Yep, manufactured in China and no remote. If you can live with that, the Mystere is a very fine preamp. I have also tweaked it with some NOS tubes that raise the performance to an even higher level, although the stock tubes sound pretty darn good.
Mystere CA 21 Preamp
As far as i know, i think that i'm the first owner of this new preamp. It took me a while to get it, because the company decided to upgrade their already exellent volume potentiometer. Well, to sum it in a few words, this 1850 Euro preamp smashed, YES, smashed everything i tried before with my superb SS amp (basically a Naim amp, that was totally upgraded by Tedy Perdo). I tried around 10 preamps - SS and tubes - between 2000$-6000$, and the Mystere is simply in another league, in a much higher league! For example, It is much more transparent, detailed and dynamic than the VAC Standard MKII, with a more accurate, neutral, and ultimately, more involving sound - and let's remember that the VAC costs almost 3 times more than the Mystere! Most of the preamps that i tried sounded either as decent volume potentiometers or as a blocks between the source and the amp. The Mystere CA 21 makes you to understand, once and for all, what a crucial link is an active preamp. With this preamp in my system (Loudspeakers: Bosendorfer VC 7; Source: Michell Orbe SE; Amp: as mentioned before) the music flows from the speakers with mighty dynamics, rich colors, and low level details, in a huge, but very clear and organized, soundstage, and a very very low noise floor. The music is simply on the verge of a realistic experience! I just can't understand how they priced this so beautiful and heavy (20 kg.) music machine. I think that if the logo on the front of this preamp was "LAMM", you would'nt be surprised.