[Don Pearce[_3_]]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2018 06:24:26 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 1:27:27 PM UTC-6, geoff wrote:
On 15/11/2018 5:54 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
wrote:
In case anyone else stumble across this thread I will say...Scott Dorsey is=
full of ****e! The ART Pro MPAII is a fantastic, mic preamp with full volt=
age going to the tubes (150 volts). It is also very sensitive to tube chang=
es. I've extensively tested many NOS tubes and found JAN Phillips 5751s are=
the best. I've A/Bd the ART Pro MPAII with the JAN Phillips 5751s against =
many high end pres like the UA610, and the Analog Designs Black Box pre and=
neither can hold a candle to the modded ART.

I'm glad you like it. I am sure it's useful for some things.

But don't call it a tube preamp. It's a solid state preamp with a tube
distortion stage. Yes, it does have a 150V B+ for the distortion stage
(which is NOT even remotely the same as having 150V on the plates), but
that doesn't make it linear and it doesn't make it sound like a real tube
preamp (where most of the coloration comes from the transformers).

The actual mike preamp section is the typical bargain basement design with
2N4401/2N4403 transistors paralleled for low noise. It's a good design in
terms of getting decent performance out of cheap parts, but there's no tube
and no transformer there.

If you like it, that's great. But call it what it is.
--scott




Which is a "solid -state mic preamp with starved-plate tube FX".

geoff

All true(except the starved plate bit)but I don't care. I use my ears. I don't give a rat's arse if it is a "true" tube pre or the tubes are a distortion stage etc etc. I use my ears. All I can say is it sounds better (more 3D, better bass, high end clarity, more pleasing harmonics, plus ability to mess with input impedance etc.) to my ears than preamps like the UA 610, Black Box Analog Designs, The Brick, Summit Audio 2BA, Daking, or any of the Warm Audio pres, all of which I A/Bd the ART against. Check out the Gearslutz thread where in a blind test the ART was chosen more often than a number of high end pres. In addition, you may have noticed that the current audio market is flooded with devices designed to add distortion. I'm well aware of hysteresis type distortion Vs distortion from valves. Transformers are in my experience more variable in the type or degree of distortion (hysteresis) they are capable of producing Vs valves which seem to be more predictable as far as how they
sound when pushed. If I want transformer saturation, I follow the ART with a couple of stand alone huge vintage 600:600 Stancor transformers.

If you want a saturated transformer, make it a small one, not a huge
one.

d

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