Whether you prefer to record your sounds cleanly or with coloration, the Cartec Pre-Q5 can deliver the goods.
The following audio files were captured during my review, and serve to illustrate the capabilities of the Cartec Pre-Q5
sos-cartec-pre-q5-aug12.zip | 25 MBVocals
This example shows almost full boost on the high band at 8, 12 and 16 kHz. This opens up the rather warm sounding original (a Neumann CMV563 with M7s capsule has been used for recording) nicely, and without ever sounding brittle or harsh.
Bass
The bass band of the pre-Q5 offers great sounding results as well, which can be heard in this example. A healthy boost at 60Hz brings out the bottom end of this bass line.
Minimoog
Here the Cartec can prove how well it compares to a reference chain (Manley Tube DI through a Siemens V72 module). While the tube chain sounds thicker and warmer, the Pre-Q5 offers more punch, with sharper, more pronounced transients. Further passses show the effect of a bass boost, and also simultaneous boosts of both bass and highs.
Minimoog Sub
Finally, this example isolates the effect of the Pre-Q5's output transformer saturation on a very simple one-oscillator sub-bass sound, once again generated by the venerable Minimoog.