Topic: Preamp Comp Aerco MP-2 vs Shure FP24

[carlbeck]

The other night I decided to comp my newly acquired Aerco MP-2 & Shure FP-24 at my local venue. The show was the New Mastersounds with Euforquestra opening. I ran MBHO 440's spread about 13" apart pointing at the house PA speakers, which are mounted hanging from the ceiling which is approximately 12 feet high. The mics were clamped to a beam in the center of the room about 9 feet high & 6 feet off the stage, it's a small intimate room that sounds great. The mics were run into a pair of splitter cables with the Aerco providing phantom power since I can't turn phantom off on the Aerco, the other set from the splitter was plugged into the FP-24 with phantom off. From both pre's I ran directly into my DR-680 as well as a board feed into the last two channels on the DR which is not included in the comp obviously. The Aerco is a fixed gain unit providing 20 dB, the FP-24 was set at around 10:00 with 18 dB attenuators on the mic inputs since it runs pretty hot, using the attenuators allows me to use more of the gain control on the FP. In the quiet parts there's a rumble in the right channel due to the AC duct, fortunately it isn't too noticeable while the bands are playing. There has been no eq in either source, I only bumped the gain in Audacity.

So transformer preamp vs transformer preamp. I've uploaded a track from each band, track 1 is Euforquestra, track 2 is New Mastersounds. I found the results interesting personally but I'm not judging anything since this was just one night in one particular venue. Feel free to discuss, hopefully this will create some discussion since some of us find preamps to be more important than others as far as imparting a certain flavor in our recordings. Enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_AEIvcg2ktXflBsWjJCT2ZtdG1XRlZ0eTdaSlZOQ0RKcVIyNloybTFFZ3ZnVWg3azRGdDg&usp=sharing

[Gene Poole]

I honestly can't tell a difference.  I even had my wife switch my A/B at random without watching and I couldn't detect any transitions.  So I pulled them up in Audacity and compared waveforms--even zooming in to the sample level--and they look identical.  I thought maybe there was some mistake, and they were the same file, but the MD5s don't match.

Listening was via Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (direct asynchronous) and Beyerdynamic DT-770 headphones.

[drewloo]

Had to listen with cans since it's early here.  I agree they do sound similar.  I always thought the Aerco Reichenbach transformers had a slightly 'beefier' sound than the Lundhals in the FP-24, particularly in the low end.  So based on that I'd say:

1a:  FP-24
  b:  Aerco

2a: Aerco
  b: FP-24

I'll give them a listen again when I can run them through the towers and sub and see if anything sounds different.  I [heart] transformer-based preamps.     Thanks Carl.

edit to add that after listening to them over my speakers they sound even more similar to one another than they did over headphones.

[aaronji]

I honestly can't tell a difference.  I even had my wife switch my A/B at random without watching and I couldn't detect any transitions.  So I pulled them up in Audacity and compared waveforms--even zooming in to the sample level--and they look identical.  I thought maybe there was some mistake, and they were the same file, but the MD5s don't match.

Listening was via Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (direct asynchronous) and Beyerdynamic DT-770 headphones.

There is a foobar plug-in that makes it easy to do a double-blinded ABX type of comparison:  http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_abx. 

As an Aerco owner, who has considered an FP24/MixPre on a bunch of occasions, I am looking forward to hearing these.  Thanks for posting!

[spyder9]

1a:  Aerco
  b:  FP-24

2a: FP-24
  b: Aerco

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Gotta watch out how the connected electrical paths due to the splitter can result in unexpected impact.
And it varies depending on the particular hardware in use, phantom powering circuit topology, etc.

[carlbeck]

Gotta watch out how the connected electrical paths due to the splitter can result in unexpected impact.
And it varies depending on the particular hardware in use, phantom powering circuit topology, etc.

Agreed & the proper way to do this comp would have been to run an external phantom power supply then the splitter into each preamp. Unfortunately since the phantom can't be switched off in the Aerco that wasn't a possibility. With all that being said I don't feel using the Aerco to supply phantom skewed the test in any way, I've run both before separately & they sound what they sound like, it was just a fun way to compare preamps in this manner.

[yug du nord]

I can't speak for all Aerco's since there are so many variations......  but I could un-jumper the pantom power in my old Aerco.
Take the lid off, use a needle nose pliers....  easy.  No more phantom.
I learned that trick from Jerry.