13th_Omen said:
What have you heard? Any suggestions on alternative 8 channel pre-amps?
About
the SM Pro Audio PR8 (from Zzounds.com):
"Pretty much a piece of poo."
Feature:
Pretty simple. However, the specs lie about the type of op-amp that's inside. Take it apart and you'll see I'm right- they use a standard op-amp rather than the low noise one they quote in the specs. Poor circuit design- the guts of the preamp operate in the unbalanced domain. Input decoupling capacitors are woefully inadequate, resulting in significant bass distortion.
"Very poorly made. I do not recommend this equiptment whatsoever."
"It sounds ok. Not to clean, though. I have only used it in a live recording environment. It is good enough for demos, or ghost tracks if you are totally broke."
"8 channels...........3 dead..........3 no phantom power...........the other two had more noise on them than a city street. You get what you pay for, but I was hoping it would supply just a little gain, no noise. "
"I was looking for another product 15 minutes after I opened the box."
I'm by no means an expert on these things but I'm guessing at about 10 dollars a channel, you're going to get what you pay for, which is noisy preamps. If you need quantity over quality, then by all means get the SM Pro Audio ones or for 10 bucks cheaper the Nady strip of 8 pres. However, be forwarned that they aren't going to be great.
EDIT: For other options, you're not really going to get 8 good channels unless you spend alot of $$$. There are some Presonus ones out there for like 800 dollars I think, not pocket change.
-Julian
