Hands Down- Best Preamp money can buy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter chris-from-ky
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I want to offer a dissenting opinion on the Grace preamps. I own a Grace 201 and have found it to sound wonderful, after using it on many piano sessions. Wouldn't describe it as cold or even remotely shitty sounding. As far as being "prosumer", these are as "pro" as it comes. With perhaps the exception of the Grace 101, which is the lone budget model, but the rest of the line makes no compromises.

The original question "Hands Down- Best Preamp money can buy?" is probably an un-answerable question. There are *far* too many factors, and there's also the matter of taste. What works great for one person might be terrible for the next.

So the only real answer is to test a bunch of expensive preamps on your mics, on your music/instruments, and in your space. If I was to try out some budget-doesn't-matter preamps to add to my Grace 201, the first I'd look at would be those made by: DW Fearn, Pendulum Audio, Telefunken, and Great River.
 
I kinda like Neve 1081's for just about everything, but often will use a Focusrite for Acoustic Piano (depending on the mics and of course the piano).

API's are great but harder than the Neves, which are rich and warm. TubeTechs and Summits are nice as well.

SSL mic pre's are decent, but carry a rack of Neves and you'll be find.


-Bruce Miller
(Engineering tips at http://BruceAMiller.us)
 
Gotta have a minimum of 2. :eek: Clean & Phatt. DACS Clarity MicPre and GR MP2 NV.
 
You all forget the most important thing about your preamps, no your whole rack. Colors are ok, but its how many flashing lights that are on it that make it valuable! I put a light-brite in my studio. I don't know how it sounds, but does it really matter?

It looks cool

and chicks dig it
 
imho the post by engineear nailed it right on the money.
but you could probably give behringer pre's to a top engineer and i'm sure he or she would get pretty decent tracks occurring.
chris from ky why not rent a bunch of pre;s and see what floats your boat ??
then just for laughs rent an alto S series mixer (a real budget mixer) and compare. frankly i was quite surprised by the alto i tried recently.
for a budget mixer it was pretty punchy and clean. not a high end piece , but definitely useable tracks.
 
AValon M5 is the best pre-amp period. If I had all the money in the world I would buy the Avalon company so I could have any Avalon I wanted. This way. I could save on shipping and retail markups.
 
Thanks for all the comments!!

I have Behringer Pre's in my DDX (which I don't care for) and if given the opportunity to expand in the area of preamps, I want to make the most dramatic improvement I can simply because it may be a while till I get my hands on that kind of cash again.

I definitely want something clean and versatile for a myriad of applications. Given the fact that you can't always have your cake and eat it too, I would settle for something that accels in the area of vocals and strings.

I have given thought to getting something like the pendulum quartet and then get a great river in lieu of a high end mic. I have a Shure KSM32. I like it as far as I can tell using only the behringer pres. I figure I wouldn't "absolutely need" another mic if I had those two preamps.

Let the discussion continue and thanks again for all the input!!

Chris
 
In the past 8 years, I've owned 6 external pre's, and rented about 2 dozen.

Out of the one's I've owned, the Groove Tubes Vipre is the one I would choose, and is the one I have now.
I bought it, after I exchanged the Focusrite L.C. (Liquid Channel).
 
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