DMP3, Art TPS or TAMPA

[guitarboi89]

Well heres my situation... i record with SP B1, SM57 and Berry C-2's into a Audiobuddy. Most of my recording only requires 1 channel except when im tracking drums (not very often). I would like a 3rd channel of pre and these seem to be the recomended options in this price range. Which one?
Art TPS £145
DMP3 £110
TAMPA £170

Is it really worth me upgrading to a sub £200 preamp?

[mentalattica]

The DMP3 is a great bang for the buck, but I'd go with the Tampa personally because you get a good pre and a pretty good comp.

[ndycus1]

Out of your three choices, I would go with a Tampa. However, I think that you should save your money and wait until you can get something that you won't have to upgrade later.

[Micter]

I have a DPS II which is the TPS with digital outs. I have to say for the money it's not bad at all. Lots of headroom or color depending on what you are looking for. Variable input impedence is a great thing to have. It's very good for that price range.

[Robert D]

What are you using for conversion? How many A/Ds do you have? Do you have S/PDIF? The Tampa is a really good sounding pre in that price range, has the compressor that mentallatica mentioned, and has a digital (S/PDIF) output which is a good thing if you're cramped for converters. On the other hand, if you have plenty of A/Ds, and just need preamps, the DMP3 sounds good and gets you two more channels. It's very vanilla, just good clean gain, vs the Tampa's ability to dial in different sounds with it's variable input impedance and compressor, and it's temporal harmonic alignment. But I really like the DMP3 on things like overheads, acoustic guitars, basically anything where I just want clean and fast stereo micing.

[guitarboi89]

I am using a delta 44 card for AD (never thought i would use the spdif). I find the 4 channels enough because its mainly guitars vox and light percussion. My main goals are to improve the basic recorded sounds im getting and have the oportunity to run a two overhead, snare and then triggered kick drum if i need to record drums. Heres some examples if it helps:
http://www.myspace.com/joereevesmusic (FOAF)
http://www.myspace.com/pokerfaced06 (All the tracks)

[kid klash]

The AudioBuddy is a nice, inexpensive two channel preamp, but any of the pres you listed will be a step up IMHO; the AudioBuddy doesn't deliver a full 48v phantom voltage, which might limit the headroom of the condenser mic plugged into it, and, because the power supply is relatively small, the preamps themselves don't have enough headroom to handle big transients (like drums) without distorting.

If it were me, I'd try all three of them out and go with the one I liked the best. My personal preference would be the Tampa, then DMP3, then the TPS, but try them all out and choose the one you like the best.