What Preamp is best for me?

[tengu]

I am in a quandry as to what is the best preamp for me. Bassically I have got it down to the following:

ISA 428
DBX 786
Amek CIB

I have narrowed in down to these for a number of reasons. Most significatly my needs, what they offer and the prices I have seen them for.

I am a producer/musician who has extensive experience in live music but my main area of focus now is making beats of the dark, abstract, hip-hop kind. Eventually when I build a soundroom I will want to record live drums and the like but for the immediate future my main recording will be mainly vocals, trumpet, classical guitar, flute but also shakuhachi, didgeridoo, some percusion and lots of other wind and stringed instruments. I have two mics that I plan to use; a neuman TLM 103 and a Rode NT2 but I will have access to a number of others.

Can people, primarily those with experience using these pre's, give me some advice preferably with some quantifiable element to their responses. One channel is enough, two would be great and for the future 4 would be great.

Eventually I will get the ISA 428 for sure, the AD converter is the clincher, but for now I want the best sound for my needs. I am leaning towards the DBX. I got a feeling it will be great.

Feel free to comment on any other preamp you feel I may be interested in.

[Jburn34]

Haven't used that dbx model but from my experience you can usually do better for the money than the dbx pre's. What's your budget?

[tengu]

Up to about $2000. From what I have heard and red the DBX 'blue' series stuff is a significant step up from the rest of its range.

[mikey@thecave]

that range get a good price on Sebatrons Thorax very good all around preampwith alot of variation--or his 4 channel for 1600$

[tengu]

I actually had the pleasure of meeting SEB in Melbourne through my mate. Maybe he can cut me a deal eh?

I was thinking of getting some tube pres later down the track. Right now I was looking more at some clean tranformer based pres.

Thanks for the reply. I hear nothing but good things about the Sebatron preamps.

[photoresistor]

have you looked at millenia preamps?

[tengu]

No I haven't. Do you have a http where I can take a look at them or read a review on them?

[Jburn34]

When you have a $2k range, you open up a wide range of possibilities...Avalon, Sebatron, API, Daking, Neve, Vintech, Pendulum, Great River, John Hardy, and the list goes on. That's where a lot of the big boys start.

[sdelsolray]

The DBX 786 is a truly great preamp. High end build. Clean, detailed, etc., etc. It has never really caught on, for what reason I don't know. Perhaps it's the price (which went up significantly to about $3,200 retail a year ago or so). Even at the lower retail price ($2,500), it was in the same range as many incredible pres.

I've seen many NOS 786s going for 1/2 price, or thereabouts, in recent months. At that price, I'd grab one. It also has a AD conversion board that can be added. I've never tried it, but somene I know has and likes the conversion quality.

[tengu]

Sdelsoray, it sounds as though you have had a little experience with the DBX 786 yourself. What things have you tried it on and where did iy shine best do you think?

[Warhead]

If you're charging for your services and the dbx sounds as good as the better / more recognizable name preamps...I'd go with name brand. $2000 is a lot of money for a preamp and you could get just about anything in that price range by just about any manufacturer.

The resell value on the dbx probably won't be pleasing if you ever decide to move on either.

My $0.02

War

[goldencd]

Go with a Avalon for the type of recording you describe.

[maskedman72]

i record a lot of different types of music and also a lot of earth music and tons of ethnic percussion (tubano,djembe,doumbek,darbuka,congas,bongos) and didridoos. also i record native plains flutes. the pre i use for all of these things is a great river mp2nv. it goes from metal to rock to techno to world with no problems.

[In Tune Audio]

I have an Avalon 737 and the Focusrite ISA 428, and have recorded alot of that same hiphop style. For vocals and the such, the Avalon would work great especially with your NT2. However, lately I've had a chance to use the UA 6176, and I like it way better than the Avalon. Mostly because of the compressor, but I also prefer the pre. Now thats a lot more money than your budget, but you could look at the LA-610.

However, what would probably be a better investment is the 428. If your going to record a lot of the instruments you mentioned, including drums, the 428 will kick some major butt! I absoulutely love mine, and use it on pretty much all acoustic instuments. Only recently had I tried it on vocals. I was very pleasantly surprised, I liked it a lot.

The problem with the 428 is you'll want to get a compressor to go with it, especially recording vocals, and drums.

[xstatic]

Maybe take a look at the OSA lineup. The perchannel cost for some different types of preamps is pretty good

[tengu]

I often have to do location recording of choirs and orchestras and was looking at the Grace Luntaec V3. Looks very sweet.

Does anyone have experience with Grace and how do the V3 pre'S stand up against the others mentioned here.

Thanks for the answers.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by tengu

Sdelsoray, it sounds as though you have had a little experience with the DBX 786 yourself. What things have you tried it on and where did iy shine best do you think?

A little experience is all. I had one here for about 10 days two years back. I was recording only solo fingerstyle acoustic guitar. At that time I was using a pair of KM184s. I really liked the pre. As I said it's very detailed, accurate, great transient response and its musical for a straight wire with gain-type pre. I actually chose a John Hardy M-2 over it for two reasons. First, price. The Hardy two channel was well under $2k and the dbx was north of $2k. Second, I thought the Hardy complimented my other main pre better for my limited uses.

That being said, I've kept an eye on the 786 since then and have been very tempted to pick one up in the mid teen price range.