Art MPA v. EH 12AY7

Garthplinko · Post by **Garthplinko** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:50 am

Any opinions? The Art has 2 channels which is nice but I've noticed a lot of good things being said about the Electro-Harmonix unit so I thought I'd see if anyone has any real opinions about one or the other...(I've used the Art before and thought it was decent but it didn't get a LOT of use because the studio I was working at had a pair of Averill 1073's and API's too.)

Basically I'm looking for an outboard pre with some character mostly for vocals. I would love to get something nicer but I don't have it in my budget right now. I'm using the pres on my DA7 which are really nice but certainly more on the neutral side so what do you think?

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:16 am

I've barely used the ART, but I think it's a good piece for the money. Definitely has character, and if I'm not mistaken, also has an impedance thing on it so you can match up w/ various mics. I do have a pair of the EH deals, and I've only used them on acoustic guitar and for bass DI so far, but at least on those I've found it to live up to the hype. I HATE the box they're in and really wish they came in a 1U rack piece, but oh well, I don't hear how they look. All the gushing about them on acoustic guitars seems pretty right to me...and I'm always suspect of hype, but for the money you really can't beat what you get with the EH.

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:49 am

I think its the mpa gold that has the impedance thingy. I have an original mpa which I got along with a VLA for $250 total. I have never heard the eh so I cant really comment. I like the sound of the mpa, but that is so subjective as to be usless info and I havent really side by sided it against anything that was competitive enough to be meaningful(ie=krap). On the secondary side, the controls and metering on the mpa are useful and the rackmount deal is a lot more convenient in my tight space. I recently got rid of an mp105 because its tabletop format and wallart powersupply made it too much of a pain to use with any regularity. I bet if eh would make a dual rackmount of that eh12aywhatever they would make fat bank with all the run its been getting.

river · Post by **river** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:50 pm

I own a couple of MPA's and have retubed them with NOS 12DF7's and 12AT7's. I love 'em, looking for a 3rd one for the NOS 12AX7's I have.

Garthplinko · Post by **Garthplinko** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:15 pm

yeah, the idea of being able to change or upgrade the sound of a preamp by changing the tubes really appeals to me.

What's your source for high-end tubes? Are these hard to find?

ALSO: do tube pre amps need to be biased like a tube guitar amp? or is that for the power tubes?

AND: There are several different MPA's - the gold, digital MPA, and the original blackface one (that I've used) any ones to avoid or are they all the same architecture. I know with some "upgrades" companies change the circuitry somehow that made the original units more desirable - like the differences in the blueface/blackface Ashly compressors....

8th_note · Post by **8th_note** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:21 pm

I have an EH 12AY7, a couple of ART Pro Channels that are supposed to have the same pre as the MPA, and an MPA Gold (no digital). To my ears the ART pres and the 12AY7 sound fairly similar with the ARTs having a little more on the bottom end.

It's the MPA Gold that has the impedance knob which does change the character of the sound somewhat. It also has a high tube voltage setting that gives the pre more headroom. I've found that to be a nice feature if you want to record a clean signal.

I posted a comparison between several preamps recently on this forum along with acoustic guitar files recorded with the various pres. Here's the link:

Budget Preamp Comparison

Regarding tubes, I tried several different tubes in my 12AY7 and Pro Channels last weekend. I compared the tubes using acoustic guitar. The tubes I tried were from JJ, EI, Mullard, and JAN Phillips. I had a selection of 12AX7s, 12AT7s, and 12AU7s. I can only speak from this one experience but I have to say that I couldn't hear all that much difference between the tubes. The Mullards stuck out the most but even there, the difference was pretty subtle.

My two favorites were a Mullard 12AT7 in the Pro Channel and a Mullard 12AT7 replacing the stock 12AU7 in the EH pre along with the stock 12AY7 in the other socket. On a different day or with a different instrument I'm not sure I'd pick the same ones.

Do a Google search on Vacuum tubes and the most popular outlets will come up. Ebay is also another good place to look. There's plenty of them out there but prices vary quite a bit for the same NOS tubes so it pays to shop around. You won't have to bias preamp tubes.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:25 pm

I have an MPA Gold and an EH pre and I dig them both -

similar sounding on my ghetto monitors (stock tubes in each so far) -

The ART gets a little bit more use because with the many knobs and switches there are many options to help match it up with different mics and di'd sources. The EH has few bells and whistles - not a bad thing, but sometimes it just doesn't agree with a particular combo of mic and sound source (like, specifically, a ribbon on a quieter source)

Knowing what I know now, if I had to get rid of one I'd ditch the EH but only because the ART has more versatility - the EH seems to sound a tad bit better so I will acknowledge that this might be a wack call on my part. Luckily I get to keep them both.

river · Post by **river** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:09 pm

Like 8th note, I did my trial runs with acoustic guitar, but I got dramatically noticeable changes in sonic character. The Westinghouse 12DF7's I first plugged in were much darker sounding, lots of meat in the low mids, but not muddy. The high end was detailed, but not harsh. I also got a pair of new Mullard 12AT7's, somewhat darker than the stock 12AX7's, kind of split the difference between the two extremes. The nicest thing about the 12AX7 variations is that many are low gain, so they're much harder to clip. They also tend to have a lower noise floor. Best use in my book is for vocals., but really nice for piano, certain guitar sounds.
My two favorite sources have been:
www.vacuumtubes.com and BNB TUBES (they have an ebay store, just search vacuum tubes)

BTW, I use the blackface MPA's

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:48 pm

I have the EH12AY7 also and even though I really dig this thing I'd have to agree the MPA Gold (a mere $300) has hella-more features and you can get some very cool voicings using the variable impedence control.

Don't overlook the ART TPS II also. It has a lot of the same electronics that made the MPA sound good and also has the variable voicing pot. Good sound for $179. Spend the rest on a better mic. Just an option.

Garthplinko · Post by **Garthplinko** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:22 pm

well, I have a Shure KSM32 that I've been very happy with. Buying something better than that is going to be a substantial investment.

Garthplinko · Post by **Garthplinko** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:11 am

Ok, so what do you think about the digital MPA and the MPA gold? I have an extra 2 channels in on my 002 that I could use w/ S/PDIF out of a digital MPA but am curious if the conversion is better that I should even bother.

Also, was there a silver-faced digital MPA? There's a fella w/ one on ebay that's reasonably priced but seems to have a silver front plate in the photo (cosmetically I think I'd prefer that over the fake-ass gold thing anyway).

blackface, gold, digital, and a silver one two...? so many choices...

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:37 am

The "fake-ass" gold is hardly gold, more like a dull platinum - you can probably live with it if you happen to like what the pre does to your sound

8th_note · Post by **8th_note** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:31 am

I have an MPA Gold (not digital) and I really like it. As Tater said, it's really almost silver. It looks OK but I would prefer black.

It has a variable mic impedance contol which changes the character of the sound plus a high voltage button for the tube which gives you a cleaner signal with more headroom.

For the price these are going for now I don't think you can go wrong. It sounds very good, has lots of gain, and you can tailor the sound to fit what you're doing. It's easy to replace the tubes which means that you can tweak the thing even more. I'll repeat what I said in my preamp review; If I can't record good sounding tracks with this thing I may as well hang it up.

Garthplinko · Post by **Garthplinko** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:29 pm

Yeah, sorry - I wasn't trying to sound like it really mattered but most of the pictures of the unit that I've seen made it look like it would have been Donald Trumps mic pre of choice for sessions at Mar-a-Lago.

If the sound is there I really don't care what it looks like (but the gold just totally clashes with the feng shui of my control room. And it doesn't match my curtains).

Thanks!

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:46 pm

I really wish EH would hurry up already and release the two channel racked version.. My patience is running low, i may have to go ahead and check out the single unit.

Message Board

Art MPA v. EH 12AY7

Art MPA v. EH 12AY7

Who is online