I had an Eventide MixingLink when they first came out around 2003-4(?). I haven’t seen one since then but the build quality of mine was very good and I don’t recall it being noisy. My only real experience with preamps up to that point was the Raven Labs PMB but my memory is the Eventide was very transparent. I also bought an Empress ParaEQ with it and that combination worked very well with an SM57, RE20, ATM350 and a KM184 (possibly a DPA too but I think that came after the Eventide was gone). With a HPF added the Eventide/Empress rig would compare favourably to any single channel instrument mic pre available today.
