ART TPS II ... thoughts?

[TDub]

Hey Everyone,
I picked one of these up and i know very low budget, but had 2 questions:
1- anyone used one of these and did you like it?
2- anyone trade out tubes and gotten improved sound, and if so, what tubes?

appreciate it

TDUB

[TDub]

sorry to bump guys ... i know everyone's chatting on PT9 (very cool) ... but anyone have any experience to share on this one?
appreciate it.

[albee1952]

Many of us view that piece as nothing more than cheap, so not many use it, or have experimented with tubes. Many cheapo tube preamps run the tubes at low voltage(like 50V) so they don't really achieve the sound of the better tube preamps(like a UA610). If you like the sound of it, absolutely use it. If you have a few bucks to toss around, look for hand-selected NOS tubes from Mullard, GE or Sylvania(and others I don't know) and see what happens. I know that changing out the chinese tube(likely what you have in there) for a NOS Mullard in my MXL V69 mic made an improvement, and I did the same with an ART Pro VLA II(but the difference there is subtle at best).

[sunburst79]

I would look at spending the extra coin and grabbing a new or used MPA which has its fans.

They make a version of the TPS II called the DPS II that I might consider if I needed to add a pair of SPDIF inputs to LE to achieve the MAX18 I/O and I was low on dough.

From what I have heard the TPS is perhaps thought of as an effects channel for adding some tube warmth rather than a great tube powered pre. Buy a used one off eBay cheap and if you dont like it resell it.

[TDub]

Appreciate the replies guys.
So if I were to have say $200 to $300 to spend, whats the best bang for my buck for decent mic Pre? (i can probably return the ART)
appreciate any suggestions.
I currently have a couple of the Presonus tube pre's. They aren't bad, but wondering if will notice difference to spend bit more.

thanks

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by TDub

Hey Everyone,
I picked one of these up and i know very low budget, but had 2 questions:
1- anyone used one of these and did you like it?
2- anyone trade out tubes and gotten improved sound, and if so, what tubes?

appreciate it

TDUB

I had a TPSII and eventually traded it out for a DPSII but they both bascially sounded the same - very thin and tinny, and that's on the "neutral" setting. I was planning to use them for vocals until I compared them to the pre's in the Digimax and the comparison was night and day - even the 003 pre's sounded tons better. I did put a new Sovtek tube in it but I haven't even bothered to check it out yet as I'm really just using it for my talkback mic.