Presonus Tubepre...any thoughts?

[cadbawdbawks]

Hey guys,

I've just been looking at the presonus tubepre and have read some reviews on them. Still not quite sure if they're any good, just wondering at this point if there are any users here that could throw out some of their experiences with it. Thanks!

[Folkcafe]

I purchased one when they first came out some years back. It was cheap and I needed a couple extra mic inputs on my 01V. I didn't use it much but it was OK if you didn't mind the noise floor. Replaced it with the Symetrix 302 which is a lot cleaner and neutral.

So color or neutral, what are you looking for? I found it easier to get color from different mics and decided I wanted clean. Sold the Presonus on Ebay.

Don
Folkcafe

[darrin_h2000]

I have a bluetube Id gladly sell you for about the same price you are spending on a tube pre....its a 2 channel version of the same thing.

[dintymoore]

I had the Comp 16 compressor that is a companion to that and was very impressed.

I also have a Presonus Bluetube 2 ch mic pre I bought to use while my Jensen mic pre was being fixed. So I was using a $150 mic pre in place of a $2,500 mic pre. I was actually amazed that I liked the sound. I thought is was a bargain. It wasn't so noisy that I couldn't work with it and the basic sound was musical.

Years after the warranty ran out I plugged the wrong ac adapter in it and blew it up. I phoned Presonus and they told me I had an early one and they wanted to replace the pc board anyways so I shipped it to them and they replaced the guts, shipped it back for free and gave me a new ac adapter for free. All several years out of warranty with no receipt. Try that with Yamaha.

Always buy used if you can. Warranties mean almost nothing. I won't buy a product if I think there's any chance it will fail within a year or two, and that's all most warranties cover, at the best. Just don't buy crap. All the good stuff I have (vintage Gretsch drums, K Zildjians and Neumanns) came with no warranty. All the crap I've bought (M-Audio, Behringer) did.

[DrewPeterson7]

Originally Posted by dintymoore

I also have a Presonus Bluetube 2 ch mic pre I bought to use while my Jensen mic pre was being fixed. So I was using a $150 mic pre in place of a $2,500 mic pre. I was actually amazed that I liked the sound. I thought is was a bargain. It wasn't so noisy that I couldn't work with it and the basic sound was musical.

I have one two, and I actually kind of dig it - the "tube" section doesn't really add anything (except a bit of grit, if you're after that), but is easy enough to bypass, and the rest of the preamp is fairly clean.

[flyingsoulo]

I own one as well. I am surprised at how much I kind of dig it. It seems to work really well with cheaper microphones (bluebirds, Rodes, MXL, etc.). For the price, I think its a pretty good deal. I've had mine for a couple months now and I'm planning on picking up both the Compressor (Comp16) and the EQ (EQ3B) to make a really cheap channel strip.

On a somewhat unrelated topic does anyone know how this particular Mic Pre/Compressor/EQ compares to some of Presonus's other gear? Like the Presonus Studio Channel or the Eureka.