Rnp

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iivanov88

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is this the best 2 channel preamp/DI for the 500 pricerange?
 
FWIW, mshilarioius likes the MPA Gold. I think. Hope he doesn't mind me quoting him.

"Well, wait a minute. The MPA has Burr-Brown opamps and full plate voltage on its tubes. It is clearly better than the starved-plate stuff. Arguably it is probably as good as a hybrid design gets. No, it isn't a box full of iron, and the tubes seem to take the edge off the crispness you'd get from a straight fast opamp pre like the Sytek. But it is hardly a useless box. The variable impedance feature is very handy. Does quality go up from the ART? Of course. Price goes up a lot too. But if you don't notice a difference from the Bluetube to the MPA, then you'd better upgrade your monitors, too.

Some people rave about the Brick, which is probably as cheap as the all-tube path goes. I haven't used one, but I've had people ask me about adding inline gain to the Brick for low sensitivity mics. Then I looked at the Brick's spec, and its noise is nothing to write home about. The ART does not struggle with gain or noise, but with the ART I have not experienced nor heard of the magical qualities some ascribe to the Brick.

Probably everything in the sub-$1K range is going to involve a compromise of some sort. That doesn't mean there is no sense in upgrading from the lowest of the low-end. You just have to inform yourself, and pick the compromise that makes sense for you. I think the Brick, RNP, MPA, and Sytek (at 4 channels, it is really not dramatically more expensive) are probably all worthy of consideration. They are quite different as well. Probably there are a few others in the midrange worthy of consideration."
 
I think the Art Gold sounds stellar with new tubes in it...that and my Grace 101 (which is just killer, but a single) really work well together.
 
I heard the rnp is pretty comparable to the grace 101, which I was planning on getting at first. but I kind of want two channels. tubes for some reason excite me though, and the fact that the art has different functions sounds neat because I like experimenting. i think i will probably stick to the rnp, but any more insight into these would be appreciated.
 
I bought the RNP along with a couple of RNC, kept the two RNC and returned the RNP. Why? My Makie ONYX 1220 Board preamps just sounded better and for the price I got 4 preamps in the ONYX 1220 plus the eq for about the same price as the RNP.
 
I like the RNP.

IMO, it's got a midrangey retro-ish sort of sound to it.

YMMV.
 
Somnium7 said:
Lately I have been hearing and reading good things about the DBX 386 Dual Tube preamp with digital outs.
http://www.dbxpro.com/386/386.php

It uses a high voltage supply for the tubes instead of the cheaper starved topology.
Click to expand...
I've rarely heard good things about any of this particular dBX line... I've got the 376, which I believe is the single channel strip version of this same preamp... it's not horrible, but it doesn't see a lot of use... I'd say there's better out there at the same price point
 
iivanov88 said:
I heard the rnp is pretty comparable to the grace 101, which I was planning on getting at first.
Click to expand...

Can'ts ay I agree with this. Grace is awesome, but rnp has a bit more color to it. I'd say the Grace is better, when it's right for the job, but rnp is good for a wider variety of uses, and mics.
 
McParadigm said:
Can'ts ay I agree with this. Grace is awesome, but rnp has a bit more color to it. I'd say the Grace is better, when it's right for the job, but rnp is good for a wider variety of uses, and mics.
Click to expand...

The Grace is sort of glassy clean. The RNP sort of retro colored. I agree the RNP probably seems better for more uses but most home recordists want something that'll put a big vocal image in the monitors. You'll not get that ever with the RNP but you'll get it with the Grace. I'd pick the RNP if I was made to choose between the two but together they make a great combo.

Anyhow, here are a couple of old reviews:

http://www.mojopie.com/rnp.html

http://www.mojopie.com/grace101.html
 
so I think I'm going to buy the rnp soon. I live in canada and want to order it online because it's 530 plus tax at the store and I would be saving a hundrer bucks by doing so. has anyone else ordered this from anywhere? which places are legit? I saw it on http://www.humbuckermusic.com/ and they ship to canada. has anyone ordered from these guys before?
 
I'm sure they're fine. Mercenary and Atlas Pro Audio have excellent reputations.
 
For around 500, it's hard to beat, unless you do the seventh circle thing and know about electronics. If you're willing to spend a little extra you can get 4 channels of the sytek
 
ok I have a question about routing. I have a motu 8pre and I am pretty sure its 1/4 inputs are instrument, not line. would it be okay to go out of the rnp into the instrument in? and should I use balanced cables or not?
 
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