A New Pre, or More Practice...First?

[BroTools]

I have found the some of the biggest improvements in my sound come from experimenting with things such as Mic placement and accoustic treatment. However I also remember the difference the first time I recorded with a decent condenser mic as opposed to my SM57. Huge!
What I am wondering is this should I get a new pre, such as a Grace, RNP, or Aueteur (looking in that 500 range) I am running a Behr. T1953 with replaced tubes into my Mbox2, and while there is a better sound from my pre there is not a HUGE diff. I like the sounds I am getting but I have a hard time getting good separation when I start layering tracks.
Soooo, will an a4 mentioned pre be worth the $ or do I just need more experience with what I've got?
What do you guys think?

[Monkey Allen]

Well I was wondering about that same question a few months ago...I used a Presonus Firebox for a few years then I got an ART MPA Gold...the step up for me was very large and very great. You should do it.

Do it do it do it

[RawDepth]

Well, both. Don't ever stop practicing, experimenting, and learning to make improvements. On the other hand, every time I have made upgrades to my gear things have gotten *a little* better than before. If that little bit is important to you then yes, it is worth it because all of those little improvements add up over the years.

I have not gotten into high-end preamps yet, ($1000+) but I have been reading that they do indeed make tracks cleaner and more focused enough to give better results when stacking. I don't know if a $500 pre will produce similar results or not, but hey...

Baby steps, my friend. We'll get there some day.

[kojdogg]

both, but...
I've owned and used a lot of preamps-- numerous Behringer and ART units through JoeMeek, M-Audio, Rane, Safe Sound, Symetrix, Five Fish, OSA, Chameleon Labs, Universal Audio and into the LaChapell, Langevin, A-Designs range and I can easily say that the T1953 was by far, the worst of the lot. I would easily recommend some cheaper ART or Behringer units that I've used over that thing. What I experienced was what you report-- a hazy mess when I layered tracks, and at the time I was recording a good amount with comparably priced gear with much better results. I absolutely hated the T1953. YMMV of course

[BroTools]

Thanks for the input. I'm considering the ART MPA Digital as it would be nice to plug into my MBox2 via spdif to bypass converters, However the BLA Auteur, which is a transformerless pre seems like it might be quite a jump up in quality. Anyone have any experience with the Auter?

[dickiefunk]

The Golden Age Projects PRE-73 is also worth checking out under $500.

For that budget I'd look at :-

True Systems P-Solo
Black Lion Auteur
GAP PRE-73

But even pres like the DMP3, Rane MS-1b, ART Pro MPA II would be an improvement!

One thing to note about the MPA Gold is it can be a little noisy at higher gain levels but with some decent NOS tubes (Telefunken, Mullard etc) it has a nice tone!

[darrin_h2000]

Just about anything would be an improvement over the Behringer.

Behringer+starved tube= bad any way you slice it.

Id reccomend the line6 ux8 at this price point...check out what it does compared with any other preamp...at any price point.