The Sim 390 is a front end that does it all…

If you’d like a high-performance system with a minimal box count, consider the Sim Audio 390.

It’s a line preamplifier, streaming DAC, headphone amplifier and MM/MC phono preamplifier. It even has Bluetooth and HDMI inputs. Sim gear is as bulletproof as it comes. Having visited their factory twice now, the service department was not busy at all – so that’s a great sign.

Here at TONE, we’ve used a number of Sim pieces as reference components and always give them a thumb up when friends and readers ask the inevitable question.

Thanks to balanced and RCA outputs, you can combine the 390 with anyone’s power amplifier. All those digital inputs mean you can plug anything in to the 390 too. It’s ROON ready, should you need that functionality, and the headphone amplifier section is very good.

Overall, the sound quality is dynamic, neutral, and very quiet. We paired our review sample up (when we had one of these in house) with a number of different amplifiers from other manufactures’ with excellent result. Personally, I love this pre with a great tube amp, but that’s me. The phono stage works as well as anything you’d get in a $1,000 external box, and when you consider you are getting four components on one chassis that all work great together, you just saved a tidy sum not buying three more sets of interconnects and power cords.

For what it’s worth, when we did test the 390 at TONE, we were able to run a 25 foot pair of balanced interconnects with no problem, so if you wanted to place your 390 (and maybe a turntable) one place in your living/listening room, and a power amplifier down near the speakers, it’s no problem at all.

You can purchase this one from The Music Room here. (just click!)