A good preamp with very useful controls. It suffers because of the reputation of its predecessor, the 150, which is widely considered the worst sounding piece of high end equipment ever made (John Curl is only one of the detractors piling on). The 150 used early ICs which were not the best sounding, though the specs were spectacular. The 150A, I think, used different and better ones. At any rate, it doesn't take the crap the the 150 does.
The original one sounds very 70s -- clinical, maybe harsh. I suspect that the 150A would also be less harsh but still relatively clinical, which is not everyone's ideal. But you may like it. I also think its lack of a moving coil phono section hurt it in the high end market, since the style was definitely moving towards MCs when it came out.
I have the dreaded 150, and I thought it sounded pretty bad until I cleaned the controls, especially the selector control. Now it sounds fine to me, though I haven't tried it with the most super high resolution amp and speakers. And I like its looks, the feel of the controls, and the panorama control is cool. I thought I would sell it off, but I seem to still have it...