Bellari RP220 for $320. worth it???

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Hi_Flyer

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is $320 a decent price for a brand new in the box rp220? these things seem to get some mixed reviews. despite a few negative reviews, the general consensus seems to be that they have at least SOME kind vibe going for them...

I'm gonna be recording my new band on a Tascam 38 tape deck and I was jonesin' for a couple real tube channels for kick and snare (or maybe overheads??).

The band is trashy punk rock & roll, perfect for tubes and tape. My other preamp channels are more of the "clean" variety (built in preamps in the Mackie Onyx board, and a Rane MS 1B). I want something trashy and retro sounding.

would you pull the trigger?
 
yeah I have been looking at those too. I kinda wanted two channels though (possibly for overheads).

The other thing that sort of scared me away from them was that I have read some complaints about the EH preamps being kinda noisy, especially with unbalanced connections. This would probably be a problem for me and the unbalanced RCA ins on a Tascam 38, especially since I may have to plug the outboard pre right into the tape deck and bypass my board altogether when I am tracking drums.

chessrock- I have read some of your posts on the Bellari RP220s. do you have the EH pre too? if so, how do they compare?
 
I've never used the EH before, but my understanding is that you can get some decent tube distortion out of it. Despite the general perception people have of it, the Bellari is a fairly clean sounding amp. Don't look for it to provide a lot of tube saturation or anything like that.

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I know it's a toob, but the ART Tube MP Studio can do trashy if you pad it and crank the input gain - dirt cheap.
 
the EH has a good sound, but very low headroom.
 
i like the bellari. my buddy travis uses one alongside API 512s, purple audio, UA-610s etc. and it gets a lot of use. it's got it's own energy to it. for that price though, i'd just get one brand new from a dealer and spend the extra 50 bucks.
 
giraffe said:
the EH has a good sound, but very low headroom.
Click to expand...

The EH is a nice little box but it's imperative that your use the balanced xlr I/Os. The 1/4 line out sucks hard. Many folks also are modding them with tube swaps but I like the sound I have with it in stock form. (As long as I use the xlr out)
 
yea, it sounds good, but the headroom thing is a big pain in the ass.
 
Where is the 220 for that price? I'd buy another one in a heartbeat... If i had the $. I really like the way it sounds, and it's far from trashy!

These usually go for 200-300 bucks on ebay in the past two years, depending on how zealous anyone is. I got a rather beat up but working one for 225.

The RP220 is supposedly the best of the 'under $500' preamps. I want to see what some Tungsol tubes sound like in this baby... Maybe change the op amps too... There were some mod schematics going around last year but 'someone' (Rolls?) made them go away.

Get it.
 
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