Spirit M series preamps

[SidGuatama]

I'm going to be be building a new project studio in my basement based around a Spirit M12 mixer and two Delta 66 soundcards. My previous mixer was a Behringer MX something or other, and the preamps were total shit. To compensate, I'd been using an M-Audio DMP3 for stuff like vocals and acoustic guitar. Not exactlly high-end, but a vast improvement.

So, how do the preamps on the Sprit M series compare to some of the popular entry/mid-level outboard preamps -- DMP3, VTB1, TrakMaster Pro, RNP etc? I've heard some very good things about the M-series preamps, so I'm just wondering how they compare to some mid-level outboard stuff.

And does anyone have an opinion about getting a Delta 1010 vs 2 Delta 66 cards? It's a bit cheaper this way, and I know I can sync them fairly easily using S/PDIF.

[AlexW]

This has been sitting for awhile so I'll give you my thoughts. I have the M12 and like it alot. I get good results with it's preamps. I don't have any of the outboard preamps you mention so I can't compare them to those; but in my opinion the M12 will provide a good set of stock preamps for your project studio. You can always expand your system with external preamps in the future and use the line inputs on the M12.

[distortedrumble]

the m12 pres are better than the dmp-3 from what has been written....on the same note of that though, an M12 or a dmp3 will do the trick....personally i would rather have the mixer than the stand alone

[fernandoesmaron]

someone did post in an earlier topic that the e-series preamps are the same as the m-series preamps but when i look at their specs there are littler differences. He said that an engineer / designer of soundcraft gave him this info.

It´s interesting that the preamps of the compact series have the same specs as the e-series.

you could ask here "middleman" about the soundcraft preamps cause a lot of postings about those were from him and i think he knows them very well.

[SidGuatama]

thanks all.