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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: easyed on May 14, 2018, 08:57:07 PM
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I own much better preamps than these, but I am giving one of these to a buddy so he can start recording stuff at home, so, which is better, Presonus Bluetube or M-Audio DMP3??
Thanks in advance for any replies.
(getting rid of stuff I'll never use again)
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By coincidence these are both preamps that I had some involvement with their implementation. Early versions of the PreSonus had too low a voltage for phantom powering; the switch was labeled "48 Volts" but the actual voltage was (IIRC) in the low or mid 30s even with no microphone connected. Some microphones are OK with that, but not most good ones. I complained to PreSonus about this, ended up talking with their engineers, and they made their voltage tripler into a voltage quadrupler instead. Just make sure that yours has about 48 actual Volts at the microphone socket with no microphone connected, and you'll know you have the updated circuit. -- I have no comment on what the tube does in that model; I turned the tube effect all the way down, and the distortion was OK that way (unlike certain ART and dbx tube preamps, which have high distortion no matter how you set their controls).
The M Audio DMP2 was a similar case, with additional problems in gain structure that made it fairly easy to overload the first stage with professional condenser microphones and loud music. The result was an intermediate model (something like DMP2 Plus) followed by the DMP3, which has good input overload margins and phantom powering that works correctly for the vast majority of professional condenser microphones.
Unfortunately the only time I tried to use the DMP3 for a live recording, one channel failed and I ended up recording the concert in mono ... I had it repaired, but never used it again. Probably just bad luck (or bad karma, who knows?).
--best regards
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By coincidence these are both preamps that I had some involvement with their implementation. Early versions of the PreSonus had too low a voltage for phantom powering; the switch was labeled "48 Volts" but the actual voltage was (IIRC) in the low or mid 30s even with no microphone connected. Some microphones are OK with that, but not most good ones. I complained to PreSonus about this, ended up talking with their engineers, and they apparently added one more resistor and diode to make their voltage tripler into a voltage quadrupler, though I don't think I ever saw or tested the revised version. Just make sure that yours has about 48 actual Volts at the microphone socket with no microphone connected, and you'll know you have the updated circuit. -- I have no comment on what the tube does in that model; I turned the tube effect all the way down, and the distortion was OK that way (unlike certain ART and dbx tube preamps, which have high distortion no matter how you set their controls).
The M Audio DMP2 was a similar case, with additional problems in gain structure that made it fairly easy to overload the first stage with professional condenser microphones and loud music. The result was an intermediate model (something like DMP2 Plus) followed by the DMP3, which has good input overload margins and phantom powering that works correctly for the vast majority of professional condenser microphones.
Unfortunately the only time I tried to use the DMP3 for a live recording, one channel failed and I ended up recording the concert in mono ... I had it repaired, but never used it again. Probably just bad luck (or bad karma, who knows?).
--best regards
Extremely helpful
Thank you so much
Hoping you and yours are well,
Easy Ed