What to do with my Art MPA Gold

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BeniRose

BeniRose

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I just got an ART Digital MPA Gold and it's on it's way. I'm pretty pumped to have a dedicated pre-amp, as I've only had my firepod thus far (and an ART Tube MP, but come on, let's be serious). I've heard really amazing tracks come from this thing when the tubes were replaced, so that's what I was posting about.

I found this post on GearSlutz where people are talking about replacing the tubes in their ART MPA Gold, but most of them are spending more on the tubes than they did the pre-amp! As much as I would love to get Telefunken or Mullard tubes, I don't really have money for that right now. I checked out TubeDepot.com and saw they have a pretty varied price range of tubes. I could probably afford to spend 100 dollars on two tubes right now.

My question is, would it be worth it to replace the stock tubes in my ART MPA Gold with a 20 or 30 (or even 50) dollar tube? I do a lot of stereo recording, so I don't really want to replace one tube without replacing the other.

The mics I'm mainly using are Rode NT1a's so I don't know if that would effect people's opinion on weather I should replace the tubes or not (I guess a mic might limit how much replacing tubes will effect the overall sound).

Oh, and I'll also mostly be using the pre-amp to record stereo acoustic guitar and vocals (probably mostly male) as well as occasional guitar cab and drum overheads.
 
First -- *don't* try to replace the 5532 opamps that are soldered into the main board and the two input boards unless you're sure you know what you're doing with a multilayer circuit board. I'm slowly nursing mine back to health after royally screwing it up that way, but it may never get there.

On the tube side, I bought some old 12AT7s at the corner electronics store for $7 each, and those were awesome (oh how I miss that sound now :(). I think you definitely will want to change the tubes, but it doesn't *have* to be with some stupidly expensive ones. I used JJ 12AX7s in mine for a long time, and thought (and still think) they were great - much better than the stock tubes.
 
antichef said:
First -- *don't* try to replace the 5532 opamps that are soldered into the main board and the two input boards unless you're sure you know what you're doing with a multilayer circuit board. I'm slowly nursing mine back to health after royally screwing it up that way, but it may never get there.

On the tube side, I bought some old 12AT7s at the corner electronics store for $7 each, and those were awesome (oh how I miss that sound now :(). I think you definitely will want to change the tubes, but it doesn't *have* to be with some stupidly expensive ones. I used JJ 12AX7s in mine for a long time, and thought (and still think) they were great - much better than the stock tubes.
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Any idea what brand the old tubes from the electronics store were? I've go to an old throwback electronics parts store and just found out he's got a back room full of old tubes. I'm gonna go back and dig through 'em...
 
WhiteStrat said:
Any idea what brand the old tubes from the electronics store were? I've go to an old throwback electronics parts store and just found out he's got a back room full of old tubes. I'm gonna go back and dig through 'em...
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A bunch of different brands, but mostly GE and Sylvania -- GE is what I wound up using in my MPA [-sob- :( - it's painful to remember]

+1 to the old electronics stores!!!!!
 
antichef said:
A bunch of different brands, but mostly GE and Sylvania -- GE is what I wound up using in my MPA [-sob- :( - it's painful to remember]

+1 to the old electronics stores!!!!!
Click to expand...

Cool...he has a bunch of GE (and Sylvania) as I recall. They're a mess--he's got thousands and they're not at all organized. I'm gonna take my son in one day and just sit and sort together...
 
Cool, thanks for the advice. I'd never replace an opamp, I have no idea how to do that kind of stuff, I was just talking about replacing the tubes. Glad to hear even a cheaper tube will make a difference. I have an electronics store across the street from me, but it's not "old" and I'm not sure they'd know what they were talking about, but I'll go in and test the waters there, bring up tubes and pre-amps. They seem to be more of a "running cable for home audio" kind of store than a "pro audio and electronics" store.

Does anyone have any suggestions on tube brands or types to put in my MPA Gold? I'm mostly using it to record singer songwriters, so it would be mostly for acoustic guitars and vocals, and of course Bass DI, and possibly amp cabs and overheads, but the most important thing is acoustic guitar and vocals.

Also, what's the difference between 12AX7 tubes and 12AT7 tubes? Are they interchangeable?
 
BeniRose said:
Cool, thanks for the advice. I'd never replace an opamp, I have no idea how to do that kind of stuff, I was just talking about replacing the tubes. Glad to hear even a cheaper tube will make a difference. I have an electronics store across the street from me, but it's not "old" and I'm not sure they'd know what they were talking about, but I'll go in and test the waters there, bring up tubes and pre-amps. They seem to be more of a "running cable for home audio" kind of store than a "pro audio and electronics" store.

Does anyone have any suggestions on tube brands or types to put in my MPA Gold? I'm mostly using it to record singer songwriters, so it would be mostly for acoustic guitars and vocals, and of course Bass DI, and possibly amp cabs and overheads, but the most important thing is acoustic guitar and vocals.

Also, what's the difference between 12AX7 tubes and 12AT7 tubes? Are they interchangeable?
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If you google those (along with 12AY7 & 12AU7) you'll find comparisons. Largely they deal with the amount of gain in each tube, but beyond that I'm not qualified to speak to what you want where. (But I'd like to know more too!)
 
Yeah, I did look em up after I posted and I see that it's mostly a difference of gain, but I'm not sure which one will benefit me most for my recording situation. There's so many options, but I'll check out the electronics store up the street and also call my sweetwater guy, he's pretty knowledgeable and used to work in the studio there, so maybe he knows a thing or two about tubes.
 
The MPA Gold and Digital MPA (same as the Gold, just with ad converter) was designed to run with the higher gain 12AX7 tube. You can interchange with 12AT7, AU7, AY7 but you'll obviously lose some gain. I started by putting JJ ECC83S tubes in mine. I eventually went to NOS Mullards. The JJ's were $12.00/tube (US) or so and my Mullards ran me about $30.00 per off E-bay. You CAN spend over $100/tube but that's absolutely unnecessary. FWIW, the JJ's were fine. The Mullards do have their own "boutique" characteristic but honestly it's a matter of taste at that point, not better/worse. Electronic store old GE or RCA 12AX7 tubes would probably rock in the unit as well, just get the stock chinese harsh crappy ones out. Also, forget about op/amp change-outs. Not worth it. For the labour/risk involved, buy a higher end pre if it's bugging you that much but for what it is, the Gold is a little gem.
 
Hey thanks, I'll look into both of those tubes, but just out of curiosity, what kind of music do you record with your MPA Gold?
 
I think I'm going to get two of these to put in it, can anyone recommend that this is a good idea?
 
I got some Russian made Mullard 12ax7/ecc83 tubes for my Gold...like a modern copy of old ones I think. I haven't put em in yet. I'm not expecting to notice a difference frankly.
 
I'm gonna upgrade my tubes in my MPA Gold at some point aswell. I'm mainly gonna use my MPA Gold for vocals so I'm not worried about getting two different tubes.

I've decided to get a long plate GE12AX7 for one channel and a Telefunken 12AX7 for the other.
 
BeniRose said:
I think I'm going to get two of these to put in it, can anyone recommend that this is a good idea?
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Those are the ones, except they're 12AT7's so there will be less available gain. You should see if the seller has any 12AX7's otherwise they'd do fine. I record basically everything like vocals, guitars, bass that need a mic. I'll even bounce a master down to tape and then run that back through the MPA to get the levels up to do my digital master if it serves the song. I'd never do that with the stock tubes.
 
My MPA Gold just broke after about a year of work. :(

No warning. Just suddenly stopped feeding any sort of marginal signal out at all. Gets plenty in, so it says, but only a trace comes out.
 
There's a 5 year warranty on these, you need to phone ART support, get an RMA number and/or take it to where you bought it from, if it was a retailer. You should be able to get it fixed.
 
Telefunken AX7's in one of mine, Amperex AX7's in the other. Love the T-funkens...great on vocals, guitars, that sort of thing. The Amperex tubes are brighter and a little "faster"...great on snare and toms.

Frank
 
If you want to know more about how 12AX7's, 12AT7's, 5751's, etc. stack up against each other, check this out: Preamp Tube Gain & Compatibility.

Here's a little tube test from an online dealer: 12AX7 Tube Type Review. I liked the chart they had.

I have an MPA Gold and a few friends who have them, too. When I replaced the tubes, I sent emails to almost a dozen online dealers and the most recommended tubes were (in first-to-third order) JAN Phillips 5751's, Mullard 12AX7's, and Tung Sol 12AX7's; the Mullards and Tung Sols were tied with the same amount of recommendations. I have the 5751's and I think they're great.
 
I'll check out that chart, thanks. TubeDepot has new productions of the Mullard AX7s for about the same price as the NOS AT7s, but the NOS AX7s are over a hundred bucks a pop. Would anyone recommend the NOS AT7 over the new AX7s? I haven't really checked any other sources (like ebay) yet, so I'm still gonna do that before I make a decision.
 
New production Mullards are Chinese remakes, they don't sound any better than the stock tubes...
 
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