Which tubes for Art MPA Gold upgrade?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dickiefunk
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mshilarious said:
Presonus used to do the MP20/M80, which had a Jensen transformer input, OPA134 gain stage, and I think a DC servo on the output (not sure about the servo though, it's been a while). It was popular for a while, around 1998-2001, but after that nobody seemed to like it much. They switched from Jensens to some sort of Jensen-clone, but I had a unit with both and they weren't that different. It was not that expensive, but they discontinued it a couple of years ago. You can find them used for less than $100 per channel.
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...highly underrated preamps (IMHO)...I have one of the original MP20s with the Jensens (paid $199)...I have Burr-Brown Ops in one channel and Linear Tech Ops in the other...clean and sonically pleasing...well worth looking for considering the going prices...and you will see them listed in many high-end studio's gear lists...mine's a keeper at that price...;)
 
Great discussion here. Some of it is over my head, but I get the gist of it.

I'm in the same boat as dickiefunk. But I'm wondering about Tung-Sols, in particular, the 12AX7 ECC803s pairs. Any opinions on those?
 
Thanks for all the info here!

I think I'll end up getting a Mullard 12AT7 for one channel and Telefunken 12AX7 for the other!
 
Hey guys,
I have a behringer mic 100 with a stock 12ax7a in it. This pre-amp is even worse than the art mp's soundwise (it's noisy!). I found two ecc83's but neither was an upgrade to the very microponic stock one. I didn't know however that it's possible to replace the tube with a ecc81, so I'm gonna try that.

My friend owns a ART MP. I replaced the stock tube with an ecc83 from his old Philips radio and it was night and day. No noise, clearer sound, more headroom (less distortion) and well maybe it was in my mind, but i found it a little warmer sounding.

My point is: although this is cheapo gear you can make it sound ok with a single tube swap. Amd I don't have the money for the real stuff like many on this board I guess.
 
dickiefunk said:
Thanks for all the info here!

I think I'll end up getting a Mullard 12AT7 for one channel and Telefunken 12AX7 for the other!
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Cool. Let me know how that sounds. Now, are you getting an old-school Telefunken tube?

I posted this in another thread, but yesterday I got a recommendation for some NOS Mullard CV4024-ECC81-12AT7. My friend told me he was impressed with the ART MPA Gold with the 12AT7 upgrade, and this is coming from a guy who owns Great River and UA preamps. He said it was probably the best under $500 mic pre he's ever heard.
 
mshilarious said:
Compare to the Rane MS1B, which is lauded, but in reality nobody buys. OK, that's an exaggeration, but Rane should sell more of those than the ART, but they don't. So tube marketing wins out.
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I have both. ;)
 
Well, I've had a Digital MPA for a few months, which I used with the stock tubes, and really liked. In fact, I liked it so much I also got an MPA Gold, which arrived today, and I decided to change the tubes while I went about re-ordering my rack.

I used what I had around, which was a pair of Tungsol AX7s I put in the Digital MPA, and a pair of Jan Phillips AT7s I put in the Gold.

I haven't had a chance to try them out yet, but I expect to do some recording this Thursday night, so I'll have a chance to see if there's much difference.
 
The MPA Gold is not a starved-plate preamp unless you disengage the "plate" button. When operating at full voltage it's a hybrid kind of preamp, and changing the tubes *definitely* makes a difference in the sound. The difference between my Amperex tubes and the Telefunken tubes is not subtle.

Frank
 
Engaging the plate voltage does what?

Also who wants to sell me some sweet sweet tubes for my Gold? I live in Hong Kong right now until I can escape.
 
rio452001 said:
Well, I've had a Digital MPA for a few months, which I used with the stock tubes, and really liked. In fact, I liked it so much I also got an MPA Gold, which arrived today, and I decided to change the tubes while I went about re-ordering my rack.

I used what I had around, which was a pair of Tungsol AX7s I put in the Digital MPA, and a pair of Jan Phillips AT7s I put in the Gold.

I haven't had a chance to try them out yet, but I expect to do some recording this Thursday night, so I'll have a chance to see if there's much difference.
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Have you had a chance to try these tubes out yet?
 
Ok I've been doing a bit of reading around on tube upgrades and from what I understand it would be best if I used the same type of tube that's already in the pre.
The ART MPA comes with 12AX7 tubes as stock so I'm thinking of getting some different 12AX7 tubes.
Ideally I would like a Telefunken 12AX7 but these are pretty expensive over here in the UK.
I am considering the following :-

Mullard 12AX7
GE 12AX7
Sylvania 12AX7

I've noticed that these tubes come in different variations - Long Plate, Smooth Plate, Ribbed Plate etc? What do these different things mean and how do they alter the sound?

What would you recommend?

p.s. sorry this thread is dragging on. I got side-tracked and recently picked up a second hand copy of Superior 2.0. Because of this, my funds are limited.
 
In a unit like this one...it will work the same without the tube...its practically a light bulb to fool you into thinking it is in the signal chain...might as well go as cheap as you can and not waste any real vintage old stock tubes in it.
 
darrin_h2000 said:
In a unit like this one...it will work the same without the tube...its practically a light bulb to fool you into thinking it is in the signal chain...might as well go as cheap as you can and not waste any real vintage old stock tubes in it.
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Uh, have you tried using it without the tubes? Let us know what you find.
 
darrin_h2000 said:
In a unit like this one...it will work the same without the tube...its practically a light bulb to fool you into thinking it is in the signal chain...might as well go as cheap as you can and not waste any real vintage old stock tubes in it.
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_prove it_
 
The MPA GOLD is NOT a starved plate design. It's a solid state pre-amp with a tube driven output gain stage, so a little bit of both worlds. Other ART pre-amps like the TubeMP are starved plate, and fwiw, big deal. If you can make it work for you great, if not, try something else. In my experience, NOS Mullards turn the MPA Gold into another animal. I wouldn't say High End but you can make records with it. I've tried other tubes in mine, JJ's, RCA's, Sylvania's...but the NOS Mullard 12AX7's did something to mine that make it a keeper. I'm hoping to pick up a Great River in the next while so I'll shoot it out. I've got a Toft ATC-2 on hand right now while my MPA is out for repair (power surge took out 1 channel). I'll shoot them out as well.
 
I ended up getting re-issue Mullard AX7s for both the DMPA and the MPA Gold. The Gold is noisy, but I haven't had the time to figure out the cause, i.e., if it's the tubes or a connection thing (the DMPA goes into my soundcard direct via SPDIF, while the MPA is plugged into a patchbay etc). In any case, the DMPA sounds great with the new tubes, I'm happy.
 
I cannot do that online...Ive just used other cheap preamps and put the tubes in and experimented...they are only good for adding noise...I do have some old 1960's Mullards I took out of an old amp head...it was a waste of time...but they did work nicely in a real tube preamp stage...and ART doesnt seem to make those:rolleyes:
 
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