Presonus Bluetube pre

[Rodgre]

Has anyone ever figured out a way to make this pre useable? It is incredibly noisy and I haven't figured a way to fix it. As it is, it's unusable. The tone seems okay, but the noise is just ridiculous.

Any mods?

Roger

[brakeshop]

if it's like any of the other tube preamps in that price range, you should be able to switch out the chips to something quieter. You might try switching out the tube if its something generic. At least that would be the quickest easiest way to do it. (hopefully the chips are in sockets and not soldered in)

[Rodgre]

Yeah, I've swapped out the tubes already, but I haven't tried swapping out the op-amps. It's ridiculous though. It's one thing to be a little noisy. Hell, any preamp is a little noisy when you crank the gain. This thing is just beyond noisy with the gain just slightly up. Even with nothing plugged into it. How could they let this thing out of the factory? I've read similar complaints online as well.

I would love to hear from someone who has modded it for something quieter (burr brown?) to know what they did and whether it was worth it.

Roger

[62junior]

Do you have the drive all the way down? How old is this unit? Apparantly they were very noisy early on and the Presonus fixed the noise issue. Mine's not too noisy with the drive down and gain up. The Toft ATC-2 that I just got blows it away though.

Maybe contact Presonus and see what they have to say for themselves.

Good luck.

K.S.

[thunderboy]

Yeah, thing about these cheapie "tube" pres is that they are NOT true tube pres. Basically you've got a SS pre with a built-in "tube driver" to add grit where you want it. If the "drive" control is all the way down, the tube isn't even seeing signal.
I bought the newer Presonus single channel "tube pre" for my little home demo setup, but I don't think it would be a good choice for anything even remotely critical.

jt

[PatrickBrown]

Where are you getting Toft from? Just curious.

[62junior]

I got the Toft at SoundPure in N.C. Very helpful, I called to order a Vintech pre but they were so impressed with this Toft that they suggeted it to me.
Check out www.toftaudiodesigns.com for more info.

Todd at SoundPure can answer any questions you may have. This was my first dealing with them and they were very helpful. You'll be seeing alot more about this box I think.

Good luck.

K.S.

[PatrickBrown]

Thanks K. S.
I know PMI distributes them, and have been there to give the stuff an up close look. It just didn't say who, if anyone, was vending it yet.

Pat

[dynomike]

That toft stuff looks awesome! Thanks for the heads up. No suprise that it kills the presonus though.. I mean, it costs about 4 times as much.

All fet though right? It sorta reminds of an avalon 737sp in look and function... but 2 channels and inexpensive. Cool!

mike

[Rick Hunter]

I just got one and I have to say its a big hunk of shit. I put a new tube in it and now its ready for wiping my butt.

[62junior]

I had a hard time finding info on the Toft after I had ordered it so I e-mailed them with a couple of questions. I got a call back from Alan (the owner of PMI) to answer any questions I had. He was very interested in getting feedback on the unit from users as it's such a new item. How often does the owner call you directly?

Anyway, I'm growing to like this thing more and more by the day. The pre's are very clean and uncolored. I was leaning towards a Vintech pre but that would have left me with only my DAW's compression and e.q. so I was steered this way by SoundPure. The pre's are based on Trident 80 series boards. The compressor is FET and it's very smooth. I had cheap compressors in the past so I never really realized what a nice smooth compressor could do. Very clean and smooth. The VU meter is very nice to have as opposed to l.e.d.'s.
The e.q. is pretty great too. Smooth and clean. Todd at SoundPure claims the price is worth it just for the e.q.
It is alot more expensive than the BlueTube but I've just discovered what all the talk about pre's is. I'm re-doing all the vocals on a friends record because the difference is so great. It's so much cleaner and well balanced than the ART or BlueTube.

I should mention also that the Vintech I was looking at was 250- more so I really got the feeling that SoundPure wanted the best thing for me.

That being said you can get decent results from the BlueTube by keeping the drive all the way down and I really had to e.q. (subtractive) the low end as it was pretty muddy sounding. Of course this is mic and mic placement dependent.

I think you're bound to see alot about the Toft in the future.

3 year warranty on parts and labor sure is nice too.

Good luck to all.

K.S.