ART Prochannel, Gold, Brick&RNP?

[Micter]

Art stuff can be kind of hit / miss. There are sometimes issues with S/N ratio as well as DC offset. I am impressed, though, with the designs and the components they use in their rackmount stuff (Pro VLA, MPA, etc.).

It's a tough call, but I have seen evidence supporting both sides (that it is good gear, and that it can possibly suck), so they're sort of an anomaly.
.

That's a fair assessment.

 

[ridgeback]

ART sucks don't buy ART that's my two cents. the signal to noise ratio sucks on 95% of the stuff they sell.

Yea what he said..... I own two and love them. Very versatile and all. Maybe a little more color than most folks want but I find for the price, they do the job nicely.

 

[junplugged]

with all my cheap pres, the next step for me would be the FMR. the only time i heard a difference was on the dmp3 compared to the single channel cheap stuff. the rest of my gear isn't probably good enough to have an improvement that would make a diff.

although, i'd like to hear the Portico someday....

pre's are very subltle, once you get enuf clean gain, you need very hi quality everywhere else to really hear it. a nice goal....$$$

 

[junplugged]

just saw your name, so if it's true and you're and audiophile, then you'll hear the diff

 

[orksnork]

get out of this ridiculous "i need things to be rackmountable" thing...as i try to tell everyone...because you'll miss out on quality gear....

spend a few bucks, get a rack mountable try...and get some double stick tape to hold it in there...voila

 

[Big Kenny]

What kind of $ do you have left after the brick? If you have enough for two channels of broadhurst gardens, get 'em.

 

[mamm7215]

I've got the PRO VLA and MPA GOLD as my input chain for Vox/Bass. I changed out the tubes from stock to JJ 12AT7's for the VLA and JJ 12AX7's for the MPA GOLD. They're at eurotubes.com. I'm quite surprised at how much cleaner the sound is through them now, and I liked them before. Plus the MPA GOLD has full plate voltage to the tubes, not just 48V like starved plate designs and variable input impedance so you can "dial in" various different characters from just one mic. I don't think you could go wrong, and the PRO VLA is a great compressor as well. It's all how good you are with it.

 

[tmix]

I have a few VLAs and love them on drums and Bass. I have used the MPA Gold on the Hi voltage (220volts?) clean gain setting on vocals and it works really nice. I also have the regular MPA and dont like it as well as the Gold because it seems more colored and noisier. I have several RNPs and like them over the ART stuff except on Bass guitar and electric guitar.I like the way the tube pre sounds on the high transients)

As was said by others. If I was going to have only 1 pre I MIGHT consider the MPA Gold version but NOT the regular MPA. (too colored)

I definitely like the features of high voltage and variable impedance on the Gold.

My opinion obviously

Tom