The ULTIMATE Entry-Level Mic Pre Poll... :op

What is the BEST Entry-Level Mic Pre????

  • Art Tube MP

    Votes: 82 15.3%

  • Art Tube PAC

    Votes: 13 2.4%

  • Presonus Blue Tube

    Votes: 52 9.7%

  • Bellari MP105

    Votes: 2 0.4%

  • Bellari MP110

    Votes: 3 0.6%

  • Bellari RP503

    Votes: 5 0.9%

  • dbx Mini-Pre Tube

    Votes: 12 2.2%

  • M-Audio AudioBuddy

    Votes: 56 10.4%

  • M-Audio DMP3

    Votes: 187 34.9%

  • Behringer VX2000

    Votes: 27 5.0%

  • Rolls CL151 Mic Pre/Comp.

    Votes: 5 0.9%

  • Joe Meek MQ3

    Votes: 92 17.2%
  • Total voters
    536
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btw... I can't believe the Meek is winning this poll.. That thing sounded like dog doo.... the only thing I liked aboot the meek pres.... was that I could make money off of 'em. :D :cool: :p



WATYF
 
well your avatar has a bow on its head so you MUST be a girl.

i take it the neumann and avalon crap wasnt in your bedroom so that might be a factor too. think about it protools joyboy.

the behringer is mighty impressive for 99$. its got variable lo-cut and one band of fully parametric EQ for each channel. seperate phantom switches. its hard to think of a preamp with so many features at anywhere near the price. no wall wart.

dont you hate those wall warts?

the sound? well it sounds good.

i bought a single channel preamp for 149$ with phantom and polarity switch and wall wart. secret pre. it has tons of high end that the behringer cant match. the secret pre has wide response and the vaunted burr-brown chip. it doesnt have lo-cut or metering (it has a clip light) so its pretty stripped down.

i think the secret pre is in a whole different class from the behringer.

:)
 
Henri Devill said:
The Event EMP 1 ..About $150.00 used..Its far superior to the Art's{Lil Mp's}..Nice and clean, pretty transparent and quiet {60db's of gain}..


Don
Click to expand...
I agree. The EMP is a great low end pre.
 
dude.. you ruined his secret... :p



Well... to be honest... I'm actually happier with the pres in the digi001 then I am with any of the standalones I tried. And since I don't have the avalon in my bedroom, :p I have to settle for the 001 pres when I record at home. I'm sure I'll be able to "tolerate" them for a while. :p




and stop makin' fun of my avatar....

my avatar ROCKS!!!


and don't you forget it.... :mad:







WATYF


and if you bad mouth her again, she'll kick your @ss....





:D
 
you mean you have multiple personalities AND gender confusion as well?

i wonder why the event preamp is no longer available. ive never heard that it had the burr-brown ic (now texas instruments and falling out of favor).

im not talking about a used preamp. im talkin brand spankin new single channel for ~150$ catalog and website prices.

its a brand name thats really big although i havent seen anybody at any of the forums recommend the preamp.

i bought it cause it called out to me from the pages of the catalog, "buy me buy me i have the highly touted burr-brown opamp and i have extreme bandwidth and i am reasonably priced".

my first impression is the effect ive seen described by ppls with the earthworms or rnp stuff. the thing about it sounds like you removed a blanket from your sound source oslt.

:)
 
btw did you get a deal on the digi or did you blow the big wad?

that seems like a great all-around hardware/software solution. im sure the preamps are good but i wonder how much better than the dmp3. i would consider a protools rig but then i would have to deal with a freekin COMPUTER while im trying to record.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

and dont try to tell me that my dps16 is a computer cause its not the same thing.

:)
 
actually... I did get a deal on it... :p

you didn't think I'd pay full price, did you?!?!? :eek:

Mars music went oat of bidness, and they were having their last big sale... so I got it for aboot 200 less than they usually go for. Not too bad actually... 'coulda got a similar price on eBay, though, I reckon.

It's not a bad all-around solution. I have a few beefs with it, but overall, it's a step up (as you can hear by my last submission).

WATYF
 
A slight twist to the pre amp question

I'm looking for a good tube mic pre amp... and like everyone else my budget is very limited. My question is: which tube preamp has the least noise? All the ones I have tried out so far add a very significant amount of noise to the signal. Or, are there any "affordable" low noise tube preamps? Maybe the animal doesn't exist...
 
peavey has a new cheapie tube preamp but its noisy and the phantom power is wimpy.

its still much more expensive than fake tube preamps but its pretty cheap.

then again its noisy.

:)
 
STUDIO PROJECTS C3

I just purchased a C3 for 350.00 Basically it is a step up, but the same basis as the C1. This mic combined with the VTB Studio Projects preamp sounds ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!! THis is THE BEST MIC made for under $1500.00, and ONE OF THE TOP TEN MICS PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!! Do your self a favor and check it out. I run pro tools digi002 and this mic set up with Yorkville YSMP1s and I ASSURE you, my setup sounds WAY better than MOST STUDIOS I have heard that cost 5 times as much.
 
Isn't it wonderful to see that unbridled enthusiasm hasn't been lost in the younger generation! To say nothing of charming hyperbole...
 
Re: STUDIO PROJECTS C3

JadionMusic said:
I just purchased a C3 for 350.00 Basically it is a step up, but the same basis as the C1. This mic combined with the VTB Studio Projects preamp sounds ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!! THis is THE BEST MIC made for under $1500.00, and ONE OF THE TOP TEN MICS PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!! Do your self a favor and check it out. I run pro tools digi002 and this mic set up with Yorkville YSMP1s and I ASSURE you, my setup sounds WAY better than MOST STUDIOS I have heard that cost 5 times as much.
Click to expand...

Dood, you need to calm down.:D Your gear is very good for a beginning home recordist. That's it. Nothing more. Stop saying your $500 worth of mic and preamp is WAY better than Neves and Neumans. Your going to get yourself tarred-and-feathered--that is if people can ever stop laughing.:D
 
jeap said:
solid state preamps do not have to be expensive to perform well. opamps are cheap.

the audiobuddy has a great reputation even among mid level gear snobs.

at 79$ you could get 2! that would give you 4 channels.

or you could get one audiobuddy and one 2 channel compressor.

bang for the buck wise the audiobuddy wins easily!
Click to expand...

Jeez, when will people realize that op-amps are FAR superior than discreet transistors? It is the DESIGN that makes a good pre-amp NOT the components per-se. Op-amps are cheap, but discreet components are -cheaper-.
 
did i really say that up there?

i remember the part about the opamps... i have seen barrels of em for 10 cents each.

it seems like such a long time ago that we were talking about the cheap preamps.

the audiobuddy is no longer the bang-for-buck champ. not by a long shot.

:)
 
Well, Jeap,

are you going to keep us in suspense...

what is now the bang-for-the-buck champ?

And, on a related note, I see some praise for the Event EMP-1. Anyone know how this compares to the other products with pre's in them from Event (EZBus, EMP-8).

-mg
 
I didn't read all 11 pages of this thread so you might have bought a pre already or someone might have already said what I'm gonna say. But, there was a thread on the n-track board at www.fasoft.com about budget pre-amps where a guy actually tested many of the ones you have listed. Go to the fasoft forum and do a search for pre-amps and look for the thread by Saturn. I know you didn't want anything that was "a matter of taste", but this guys taste was leaning toward the pres in a Berry UB series mixer as being better than a lot of the other low-end pre-amps out.
 
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