I have one... used it for about a month or two until I was able to pick up a UA-5. Ran it behind the Busman's and in front of an SBM-1 (until my RCA's went bad). Even ran it straight into (line-in) HiMD. Great results IMO! I was able to get a solid 2-3 shows off of a single 9v. Then I swapped batteries cause it seemed impossible to me that it could provide enough juice to power the pre-amp AND 48v phantom. I never pushed it... but I never had a battery die either. It might be able to last as long as ART states... not sure. Then I started using a DVD battery to power it... it probably could last an entire weekend at a festi with the DVD battery.
The only major issue I could find is that it has 48db of gain, but it seems that if I raise the gain above +30db, it gets a bit noisy. At a loud show, I can't see any issues, but at a quiet acoustic show... it may be too noisy. Same if I use it to monitor audio from the PC... noisy. I never have used it with the AC adapter, but I would guess that would create less noise than either the battery or USB. Keep the gain below +30db, and it's been a great $100 spent (I bought it locally during the first week it was available... I was my local store's guinea pig). And yes, it seems to provide 48v phantom... or at least enough to allow the Busman's to shine!
I'd say, if you're in a pinch and need a pre... this is definitely worth the $100! Even if you're not in a pinch... it's small,
-able, provides 48v, and sounds well enough! I'm gonna probably use mine at some point to run 4 mics into my UA-5... cheap solution for wanting to run 4mics.
I'll try to open it up and provide some pics after the weekend... festival time!!!
Topic: Art USB Dual Pre... (Read 4087 times)