Art Pro VLA upgrades?

S

santiu

Rock-scientist
hey, so another poster in here is asking about cheap compressors and seems to be getting the VLA + upgrade tubes suggestion a lot.

I personally found my VLA seems to suck the life out of anything I put through it, and consequently i've been thinking of dumping it (my only other compressor right now is an RNC and I totally love it). But now I'm interested in the VLA again.

What type of upgrades have folks done to their VLA? Are there any particular tube suggestions (I'd like to stay away from chinese tubes if I do this)? Any impressions (or even better, samples) after doing any upgrades?
 
To me it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to put expensive NOS tubes in this compressor. I just put in some Ruby tubes, and it improved the sound a lot. I'm sure others here have used other tubes. Just get a good quality tube. You don't need to spend more on the tubes than the price of the compressor.
 
A different tube may radically change the sound of the VLA, especially if it has one of the newer crappy tubes to hit the market. I have been collecting a fairly large cache of older tubes (both preamp and power amp, some of which may be going up for sale soon since I have more than I will probably ever use) and will be using the tubes for building amps, but I have also been tube rolling in other peices of gear to some success. Getting a good vintage tube may not be an expensive adventure ($40 and less) and may completely change the unit, but I have a feeling that the ART may also not be able to fully take advantage of what some tubes may have to offer due to its design and build. Then again, even if it cant fully take advantage of what a good tube can offer, it may still sound a lot better with a good tube in it. Trying it in your environment will tell you the most about this principle. Keep in mind that generally speaking, even a very unexpensive vintage (read well designed and built) tube will probably last MUCH longer, and still sound MUCH better.
 
ah, sweet link. thanks man! I was hoping to find someone that replaced the op-amps. Now to find me some tubes to try out :)
 
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