to my ears, the best sounding one box, even stock, period. the mme pre is too bloated in the lows and lacks detail throughout the range...the v3, plenty of high end detail, but a weird overall thinness and metallic sound I do not like...plus it's no more than 1/3 the cost of those boxes, even after the digi and warm, transparent or presence mod. I've not heard a bad sounding ua-5 tape.
the ergos kind of suck, but for that price?
I ran a std. UA-5 and a Wmod UA-5 for awhile when Doug first starting doing these mods and I also agree it produced some damn fine sounding tapes - IF you ran the right kind of mics through it (some mics sound better through other types of pre's or Oade upgrades). The reason I upgraded to a V3 (also looked and listened to MMe real hard before I made my choice - and yes it was a tough thing to swallow spending another $700 investment to buy a used one) was several factors that were important to me that the UA-5 just couldn't deliver :
- V3 has nuclear proof case and is very well built for field use; UA-5 resembles an old Coors can enclosure and is well made overseas in a mass produced factory. The quality is just not there and is very apparent when you do a side by side comp.
- V3 has such a clean/transparent pre you just can't hear any noise when really running the gain at high levels (for acoustic shows, quiet performances, etc) I found the UA-5 starts to get way noisy past 3:00 setting on the gain. This used to drive me crazy listening to all that hiss – one of my biggest issues!!! NOISE!!!
- V3 has very accurate, easy to ready level meters. UA-5's -3db peak level just didn't cut it for me.
- V3 is also very, very easy to adjust the levels on, no phantom power switch that can be accidentally activated, etc. Layout on the V3 is very well done.
- V3 allows you to really hear what your mics truly sound like - no coloration at all....just VERY clean transparent sound (once again you need to decide if this is for you or if you need coloration to fill/hide/enhance your sound/mics).
- V3 runs on 6VDC which my D8 also uses (no dual source PS or batt packs - can run common power setup for all)
- V3 has a very nice range for low-cut options!! SWEET
Not sure what Marc "ate" to hear any thinness or metallic sound from a V3, perhaps a chunk of foil??(hee,hee) Regardless I think much of it has to do with what sound you are trying to obtain or capture while you are recording, what TYPE of music you intend to record and what types of mics you plan to use NOW and in the FUTURE as well as how much you can afford to spend. Do any of my reasons listed above justify spending an additional $700 clams to get those features??? Perhaps not, but it really doesn't matter to anyone else.....I felt it was worth the extra cash and its my fucking money!!
As you become more involved in this hobby (or should I say more “addicted”) and you gain more and more experience (from personal experience and from others) you tend to “raise the bar” a little higher in terms of expectations from your recordings. This may fall into categories of sound capture, gear performance, reliability, etc. & ease of use. Some of these mean less to a taper when just staring out (did to me) and I also questioned really hard about spending more just to gain that little characteristic I was hoping to achieve. Bottom line is ask yourself how many shows do you plan to tape each year and if what you do tape makes you happy in terms of sound quality and the overall experience!! Its not all about if the combo puts out but also if you enjoy running the gear!! To me half of the fun is setting up & running my gear!! If I do nothing but struggle while running my rig its not gonna allow me to reach the tapers “ZONE”!! Remember there is a zen like approach to taping!!! Just my personal experiences and opinions – your results may vary!!
Happy Holidays!!
LoS
Topic: What's so great about the UA5? (Read 10964 times)