Mic Pres and Replacement Tubes

JohnnyMan

JohnnyMan

New member
I purchased a Behringer Ultragain Pro Mic 2200 dual mono tube mic pre about two years ago. I remember reading somewhere that you can greatly improve the sound of the mic pre by replacing the tube with a better quality tube.

Do you agree with this and what would you suggest for an improvement tube (or maybe an improvement pre – I also own an ART Tube MP)?

My usual signal path for vocals is mic – Ultragain Pro – Nanocompressor – Delta 10/10 sound card.

I also have a Behringer Eurorack UB2442FX-Pro but I use it mostly as a component mixer (i.e. I don't use the mic pres in it). I usually mix within the DAW.

My current vocal mics are Rode NT1s and an AKG 535EB.

Thanks for any suggestions. I will be happy to provide any other info if you require it.
 
I changed the tube in my ART Tube MP several times (JAN Philips 12AX7WA, JAN GE 5751 and Tungsram 12AX7). Be careful though, I accidentally pulled the gain pots too far from the circuit board - now the signal cuts in and out and distorts.

Before I screwed it up, I didn't notice a significant enhancement with any NOS tube. In fact, I thought the stock tube had the most clarity and depth. Go figure. You're mileage may vary, but don't expact a dramatic improvement.
 
JohnnyMan said:
I purchased a Behringer Ultragain Pro Mic 2200 dual mono tube mic pre about two years ago. I remember reading somewhere that you can greatly improve the sound of the mic pre by replacing the tube with a better quality tube.

Do you agree with this and what would you suggest for an improvement tube (or maybe an improvement pre – I also own an ART Tube MP)?

My usual signal path for vocals is mic – Ultragain Pro – Nanocompressor – Delta 10/10 sound card.

I also have a Behringer Eurorack UB2442FX-Pro but I use it mostly as a component mixer (i.e. I don't use the mic pres in it). I usually mix within the DAW.

My current vocal mics are Rode NT1s and an AKG 535EB.

Thanks for any suggestions. I will be happy to provide any other info if you require it.
Click to expand...

I've always found that my ART tube mp or ART dual mp matched up quite well with my AKG 535eb. The AKG 535 has a presence peak, and it's my impression that the slight colouring the ART adds is complimentary to mics characteristics. I've used that vocal chain alot on non-sibilant male and female singers with good results. I've carefully compared my ART pre's with all my other preamps, and atleast with condenser mics (the story changes a little bit with dyamic mics), I would not describe the differences as better or worse - they just sound sublty different! I think changing the mic, verses changing the tube, or the mic pre itself will give ya better results if your not satisified with what your getting now :) I say this not because i've tinkered with the tube's in my preamps, but because i've heard the work of others using stock ART pre's (e.g. Michael Jones, Ed Rei) that just plain and simple sounded great.

You know, i've never heard that alesis nanocompressor, but something tells me that it ain't good news. Check this link out for some info on a cheap, easy to find, but good sounding compressor:

http://www.recordingproject.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=8142

T
 
teainthesahara said:
I've always found that my ART tube mp or ART dual mp matched up quite well with my AKG 535eb. The AKG 535 has a presence peak, and it's my impression that the slight colouring the ART adds is complimentary to mics characteristics. I've used that vocal chain alot on non-sibilant male and female singers with good results. I've carefully compared my ART pre's with all my other preamps, and atleast with condenser mics (the story changes a little bit with dyamic mics), I would not describe the differences as better or worse - they just sound sublty different! I think changing the mic, verses changing the tube, or the mic pre itself will give ya better results if your not satisified with what your getting now :) I say this not because i've tinkered with the tube's in my preamps, but because i've heard the work of others using stock ART pre's (e.g. Michael Jones, Ed Rei) that just plain and simple sounded great.

You know, i've never heard that alesis nanocompressor, but something tells me that it ain't good news. Check this link out for some info on a cheap, easy to find, but good sounding compressor:

http://www.recordingproject.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=8142

T
Click to expand...


Thanks T,

It wouldn’t break my heart to replace the Nanocompressor. Thanks for the suggestion (DBX 119) and link. I like the idea of an inexpensive AND good device.

I have been tinkering with the idea of purchasing a new signal chain in the new future. (I’d get one now but I just spent ~ $900 on a Mexican Strat with Roland-Ready pickup, a Roland GR-33 guitar synth, and a J-Station from ebay and it will be very hard sell to my better half for getting any more gear).
I was considering maybe purchasing a channel strip with mic pre and compressor all in one but there are many to choose from. I will look into the dbx.

Thanks again,

John

P.S. I'm having difficulty locating stores that sell the DBX 119. Is there a comparable compressor?
 
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My First Post ! I guess that I'm no longer a post virign...

For what it's worth, I changed the tubes in my Millenia STT-1 and did notice quite a significant difference. It came with Telefunken tubes in the preamp stages, but the remaining tubes were cheap chinese tubes. I put Golden Dragon audiophile tubes and noticed an increase in clarity and smoothness. It ended up sounding more like .... a VT737

I've also tried changing tubes in my NTK and found very significant differences there as well - especiall in terms of noise and tone. I tried JJ Tesla ( noisy but beautifully detailed ) and EI Elites ( highly recommended - very quiet and smooth ) as well as Sovtek ( too noisy and too bright ) and the standard JAN Phillips ( smooth and dense, but a bit dark with sibilance ).

Ultimately it's what sound you want to hear that will dictate whether you think it's worth it or not. To a certain degree, you can sort of make one tube sound like another using EQ, but different tubes also produce their own particular varieties of harmonic distortion which can't really be achieved with EQ. Not easily anyway. In IMHO, tubes do matter - significantly.
 
rocker said:
sounddog, you spent 2500 to get your stt-1 to sound like an 1800 unit that's wild
Click to expand...

LOL - I agree it sounds silly, but I should have clarified that the STT-1 ended up sounding more like a VT7373. Not the same. I actually really like the VT737 - for certain styles and with certain combinations of mic / cable. (Low) cost is not important to me when I'm chasing a particular sound. I'm very happy to use cheap gear if it gets the desired result.

After just having said that - the mic cable ( just the cable ) cost more than the STT-1 believe it or not.
 
John - I used google searches to find prices and availability. There are hundreds of sites you can order from.

At first, I didn't know what tubes were even available, but after finding a few tube sites, I looked through the lists of products available and did searches for reviews and opinions on those tubes. Gradually, after researching the various tubes and their properties, I did searches for prices.

I'm in Australia, so the main supplier I used was www.evatco.com.au. Apart from that, I used www.tubedepot.com ( they sent me the tube wrapped in a free TShirt ) and www.thetubestore.com.

All of them gave excellent service and I'm sure most of the other sites will be just as obliging.

You probably don't have to spend hundreds on the fabled vintage NOS tubes to get a good sound. If you look at some of the more esoteric audiophile hi-fi tube amplifiers, you'll find that they're using modern tubes. The VAC Phi Beta 110 wpc Integrated Amplifier sells for a mere $19,000 USD. I don't know what they recommend for that model, but for their cheaper PA 35/35, they recommend Golden Dragon tubes. I read somewhere the VT737 uses sovtek tubes - ones I didn't like at all - yet the unit sounds fantastic to my ears.

You'll just have to try them out for yourself to find out what you like best.
 
Generally, if the device was designed recently, it was designed around the tubes that are put in the thing. The nos super nifty tubes from 1957 tend to make more of a difference in gear that was designed around those tubes. Newer stuff is designed around the tubes that you can get now, so it works the way it was designed to with normal, readily available tubes.
Replacing them with older tubes will change the sound, but not always for the better.
 
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