Topic: Seems like this could be a great pre...?

[sanaka]

http://www.fmraudio.com/RNP8380.htm



Flexible powering requirements, and just seems designed with a righteous attitude and sensibility. Search only found like two old posts that referred to this, with no one seeming to have run one.

Has anyone? Just curious.

Peace,
Sanaka

[MattD]

Their RNC (compressor) has been used by a bunch of people on the Metric Halo mailing list. They make solid quality gear at a decent price. I wouldn't be scared off from running one, but I also wouldn't expect it to sound as good as a V2, either.

[zowie]

It is very well regarded in the low budget studio arena.  Never heard of it being used in the field. Looks like it takes a lot of juice for a pre.

[bluegrass_brad]

This also has stepped gain, so changing levels would be a nightmare.

[sanaka]

I'm thinking in terms of a rig that's something like: mics>this pre>Microtrack2496.

Sure, it wouldn't be V3>SD722, or M148>standalone-way-hot-A/D>digital-stream-recorder-of-choice. But apparently the M148 is not easily obtainable, and perhaps twice the price if it is? I'd be interested in what else is available to reasonably play the role of the M148 - just a solid, nice, analog preamp stage. The RNP seems perhaps a good step up from say M-Audio mobile pre usb and the like. One of these plus a MT2496 would still be $500 less than a V3.

Why would the stepped gain be a nightmare? Sure, you might not utilize your last few dB of possible headroom, but that's better than trying to push the boundary and end up clipping. I'm prone to obsess on riding gain/levels, and get in trouble that way sometimes. With 6dB steps, you'd sort of be forced to 'set and forget,' which could end up a good thing  Plus their rationale for the stepped gain is becasue even good pots don't track that well. Good quality switched steps insure that your L/R are truly at the same gain, which means accurate stereo imaging in your recordings (well, as accurate as your mic setup).

It does look pretty thirsty for juice. My battery/remote powering knowledge is pretty sparse. Perhaps a decent lithium setup would handle, or would it need some big ol' SLA's?

This is all pretty much armchair pontification for me, but this thing strikes me as possibly right in there. 

Peace,
Sanaka

[RebelRebel]

I think the m148 is the same price it has always been. Doug *might* build one for you, but will charge the same price he always has(1500)(I think it has always been 1500??someone correct me if I am wrong)as he is in bad physical shape with his back and cant work on the bench as much as he used to. If someone will sell one from here, I seriously doubt theyd charge twice the price. I have seen them go for 800, 900 and 1000. I sold mine for 750 to another member. The neve portico is about 1400 I believe and sounds similar to the 148(fwiw, I used the neve for a week and still liked the 148 better). for 100 bucks cheaper....there is also the eaa and psp2 which utilize transformers and have a similar "warm" sound.....I think the  eaa, psp2 and neve portico are as close as youd come to the 148 for taping purposes...then there are the more pricey pres like the John Hardy, Electronaut, DW Fearn, Presonus ADL ,DBX 786, which have really nice analog transformer/tube stages....but none of those are field ready..and are costly.Doug may build a 148 for you though, I dont know. The time is running out on those , if it hasnt already. I do know that.

I'm thinking in terms of a rig that's something like: mics>this pre>Microtrack2496.

Sure, it wouldn't be V3>SD722, or M148>standalone-way-hot-A/D>digital-stream-recorder-of-choice. But apparently the M148 is not easily obtainable, and perhaps twice the price if it is? I'd be interested in what else is available to reasonably play the role of the M148 - just a solid, nice, analog preamp stage. The RNP seems perhaps a good step up from say M-Audio mobile pre usb and the like. One of these plus a MT2496 would still be $500 less than a V3.

Why would the stepped gain be a nightmare? Sure, you might not utilize your last few dB of possible headroom, but that's better than trying to push the boundary and end up clipping. I'm prone to obsess on riding gain/levels, and get in trouble that way sometimes. With 6dB steps, you'd sort of be forced to 'set and forget,' which could end up a good thing  Plus their rationale for the stepped gain is becasue even good pots don't track that well. Good quality switched steps insure that your L/R are truly at the same gain, which means accurate stereo imaging in your recordings (well, as accurate as your mic setup).

It does look pretty thirsty for juice. My battery/remote powering knowledge is pretty sparse. Perhaps a decent lithium setup would handle, or would it need some big ol' SLA's?

This is all pretty much armchair pontification for me, but this thing strikes me as possibly right in there. 

Peace,
Sanaka

[Brian Skalinder]

Other strictly preamp options:  EAA PSP-2, EAA PSP-3, Lunatec V2, Sonosax SX-M2.

Why would the stepped gain be a nightmare?

• No ability top fine-tune L/R balance if <a> your mics aren't matched precisely, <b> you're off-center, <c> one PA stack is much louder than the other, etc.
• More difficult to adjust levels on the fly - if you guess wrong initially setting your gain, you'll have big 6dB jumps when you adjust;  could happen right away at the beginning of the show, could happen in the middle of the show as the sound engineer turns things up after getting dialed in.

I'm prone to obsess on riding gain/levels, and get in trouble that way sometimes. With 6dB steps, you'd sort of be forced to 'set and forget,' which could end up a good thing

The solution for not obsessing over riding the levels is not a device with limitations, its the grey matter inside your noggin.

It does look pretty thirsty for juice. My battery/remote powering knowledge is pretty sparse. Perhaps a decent lithium setup would handle, or would it need some big ol' SLA's?

Looks like it runs on 9-12v, so a Li-Ion 9v would probably do the trick.  I don't see any indication of its power draw, so no idea how long one of those batts will last.  The manual does indicate the power supply needs a current capacity of 1.5A, but doesn't mean the RNP draws that much.

RNP ($500) + MT2496 ($300) + media ($200 minimum) = ~$1k, which gets you over the range of a heavily modified UA5 (digi + w/p/t + PLUS mods, whether Oade or Busman),  within range of a MMe, and awfully close to a used V3.  Of course, you'll still need a recorder, but you could go with an inexpensive 16-bit recorder in the meantime (e.g. JB3) until you either scrape together the cash for the 24-bit recorder, or media prices drop significantly.

[muj]

the dbx 786 is fantastic ..i luv the big knobs.

[Thom Joad]

I ran a RNP for about 6 months or so.  Super clean and transparent!  The reason I sold it was because I was running Earthworks, and the combined sound was way too bright.  Plus I got a great deal on an AERCO.  It's a great pre., just not with any bright mics.  I never had any problems with the stepped gain.  It needs a 1.5mA boost at startup, then runs on ~.8-.9 mA.  I ran a 4.5A, 12V and never had any problems at all.  I would try and find some sample recordings for you, but my collection is really chaotic right now, since I'm currently  moving everything to a new storage solution.

[sanaka]

Those are good points, if not necessarily deal-breakers, about the stepped gain, Brian. Especially the imbalanced mics point, as one could adjust for a small outage with a pot gain, if one had really measured everything (the dial numbers of a typical pot gain couldn't be relied on). Other than that, in a strict stereo mic arrangenment, different gains on the mics would wack the stereo image. And presuambly there's level adjustment downstream of the pre if one wanted to correct for off-center or out PA stacks. Those other pre's are good of course. How much can a psp-2 or 3 be had for?

Moneywise, I already have a MT2496 and media, and will probably rely on it's A>D for the forseeable future. So, looking for a cheap/awesome pre 

Thanks for that info Thom. I'm assuming you meant A for amp where you wrote mA and Ah for Amp-Hours where you wrote A?

Peace,
Sanaka

[Kindguy]

Bush ran one of these for a while. Stepped gain was not a prob with the ad500 & mod sbm-1. Sounded just like it's name. Really nice.