another pre amp

liv_rong

liv_rong

Knows very little
ok, i currently have a presonus bluttube dsp as my main front end mic pre. ill either use this, or the phantom power on my alesis firewire and usb mixers for mics. i also have a samson c-valve, which i use only for a pre for my guitar rig. i guess i have a two part question.

ive wanted an ART MPA Gold for a while now, and ive read a lot of good reviews on it using the search function on this site.

but is this going to be a comparable step up from what i already use? am i even going to be able to notice a difference between the mpa and my bluetube or alesis pres?

i was also considering getting a M-Audio DMP3, also because a lot of people around here seem to like it. but what concerns me is, am I losing quality by going to a balanced 1/4" from an xlr? because the output on the dmp3 is only 1/4" balanced, and not xlr.

is it worth getting the art mpa gold? or should i just save my money and get something much better, like the new Universal Audio DCS Remote Preamp, which also has only 1/4" balanced outs?

btw, i am also going to be upgrading to a better condensor soon after the new pre amp purchase.

honestly, i would think the art would be a step up from what i already use.

any opinions?

thanks a lot guys!;)
 
liv_rong said:
honestly, i would think the art would be a step up from what i already use.

any opinions?

thanks a lot guys!;)
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The ART is a nice unit, it is a step up from the Bluetube (in fact it's better than the MP20/M80), but it's not a giant leap forward. It is cheap and useful enough to find a place even if you drop serious change later on though.

XLR vs. 1/4 balanced out makes no difference.
 
1/4" balanced outs versus XLR outs means nothing. Either way is three wires. It doesn't matter what scheme you use to connect the three wires.

You may notice a cleaner sound with the DMP3 compared to the Bluetube. However, I don't think either that or the ART stuff would be a notable jump in quality. If you really want to step up to a higher level of quality, I'd save for something like that Universal Audio or a Sytek MPX-4Aii.
 
Whoopysnorp said:
If you really want to step up to a higher level of quality, I'd save for something like that Universal Audio or a Sytek MPX-4Aii.
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ok, so for a high quality pre, do i need to spend an equal amount on a mic to make it worth while?

because when i get a new mic to add to my small collection, i am probably not going to spend mor than $500.
 
liv_rong said:
ok, so for a high quality pre, do i need to spend an equal amount on a mic to make it worth while?

because when i get a new mic to add to my small collection, i am probably not going to spend mor than $500.
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No, you don't need to spend an equal amount on a mic to make it worthwhile. There are plenty of really good mics out there for less than $500 (especially used) that would benefit from having a better preamp -- for example:

Shure SM7; EV RE-20, virtually all of the 40 series AT mics -- AT-4050, 4049, 4051, 4053, 4047, etc.; Beyer M160, M260, M500, M88, MC930; Groove Tubes MD1a and A40/GT44; Sennheiser MD421, MD441; Audix VX10; Josephson C-42; Shure KSM44.

All of these are keepers that you would likely continue to use no matter what other mics you eventually acquired.
 
Well, wait a minute. The MPA has Burr-Brown opamps and full plate voltage on its tubes. It is clearly better than the starved-plate stuff. Arguably it is probably as good as a hybrid design gets. No, it isn't a box full of iron, and the tubes seem to take the edge off the crispness you'd get from a straight fast opamp pre like the Sytek. But it is hardly a useless box. The variable impedance feature is very handy. Does quality go up from the ART? Of course. Price goes up a lot too. But if you don't notice a difference from the Bluetube to the MPA, then you'd better upgrade your monitors, too.

Some people rave about the Brick, which is probably as cheap as the all-tube path goes. I haven't used one, but I've had people ask me about adding inline gain to the Brick for low sensitivity mics. Then I looked at the Brick's spec, and its noise is nothing to write home about. The ART does not struggle with gain or noise, but with the ART I have not experienced nor heard of the magical qualities some ascribe to the Brick.

Probably everything in the sub-$1K range is going to involve a compromise of some sort. That doesn't mean there is no sense in upgrading from the lowest of the low-end. You just have to inform yourself, and pick the compromise that makes sense for you. I think the Brick, RNP, MPA, and Sytek (at 4 channels, it is really not dramatically more expensive) are probably all worthy of consideration. They are quite different as well. Probably there are a few others in the midrange worthy of consideration.
 
i think people forget that the mpa golds sold for like $600 a couple of years ago before they moved production to china too.
i think part of the brick's lore is also that it has transformers on the input and output.
 
kojdogg said:
i think people forget that the mpa golds sold for like $600 a couple of years ago before they moved production to china too.
i think part of the brick's lore is also that it has transformers on the input and output.
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dam, that's expensive haha, i just got mine for 195 from MF today, it's not bad, i like it better than the DMP3, the sound that came in in much thicker and smoother, I heard swaping tubes increases performance ALOT, i'm buying some tubes to swap in, i checked it out, the tubes are very easy to remove, no sweat.

BTW, this unit look impressive. I think it looks the part for 200 bucks, the dmp3 @ 150 looks like a toy compare to this one.
 
yeah i had an mpa gold briefly (got it from sweetwater and it was obviously a previously used and returned item, so i sent it back and bought a chameleon labs 7602, which is also long gone :o) and i thought it was pretty good actually. i never swapped the tubes out which is a shame and i've been thinking about picking one up for a couple of extra inexpensive channels and because i have a bunch of nice nos tubes lying around (telefunkens and rcas) plus some nice new ones-- jj's and ei gold elites.
 
kojdogg said:
yeah i had an mpa gold briefly (got it from sweetwater and it was obviously a previously used and returned item, so i sent it back and bought a chameleon labs 7602, which is also long gone :o) and i thought it was pretty good actually. i never swapped the tubes out which is a shame and i've been thinking about picking one up for a couple of extra inexpensive channels and because i have a bunch of nice nos tubes lying around (telefunkens and rcas) plus some nice new ones-- jj's and ei gold elites.
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yeah, i think you should do that, especially with the extra tubes on hand, saves some money right there. I think it's around 250 right now, which still isn't bad, i don't think there's any other full plate 2 channel tube pre in this range. Best i can come up with is the EH 12AX7 and the brick, but since you need more than 1 channel it only makes sense to go with the MPA.

Ironically mine was marked as "blemished" but the box is seal tight, instruction manual and cable is tied/wrap like it's never been open, i see no scratch, it's looks like new to me, i checked the screws, no mark, check both channel, works, so i really don't know if someone has used it before.
 
dickiefunk said:
Hi. Just out of interest, which Burr Brown OpAmps does the MPA Gold use?
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Mine has OPA2134 *but* a disclaimer, I have the DMPA, and an early model, it also has a top range AKM converter chip, but later versions use a cheaper chip. So I won't swear that the opamp didn't change, although OPA2134 is a lot cheaper than the AKM chip (which was $20), so the cost savings wouldn't be as great. The opamps are socketed too.
 
mshilarious said:
Mine has OPA2134 *but* a disclaimer, I have the DMPA, and an early model, it also has a top range AKM converter chip, but later versions use a cheaper chip. So I won't swear that the opamp didn't change, although OPA2134 is a lot cheaper than the AKM chip (which was $20), so the cost savings wouldn't be as great. The opamps are socketed too.
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where can you find the amp model? i wanna check mine, i think i have a recent one (manufacture date 2004 or 2005 i think)
 
I think im leaning towards a BlueBird, and the Art MPA Gold.

seems to make more sense to get a good mic now along with a decent pre-amp. versus buying a thousand dollar pre amp and having not so hot mics to work with now.

i can upgrade the pre-amp to better things down the road.
 
liv_rong said:
I think im leaning towards a BlueBird, and the Art MPA Gold.

seems to make more sense to get a good mic now along with a decent pre-amp. versus buying a thousand dollar pre amp and having not so hot mics to work with now.

i can upgrade the pre-amp to better things down the road.
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My go-to signal chain for voice and acoustic is a BlueBird into an Art MPA Gold. I like it. I have replaced the tubes with JJ/Eurotubes, and it indeed made a considerable difference. Local dealer had the tubes for $9 each.

Pete
 
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