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Originally Posted by Dr. Gonzo Hello, everyone!
This is my first post on gearslutz, but I've been lurking and searching for a while now. Partially through your guidance (and such enablers as Mercenary Audio), I ended up getting a Neve Portico 5012 dual mic pre, an AEA R84 ribbon mic, a Soundelux U99, a pair of Adam ANF 10 studio monitors, and my brother got a TAB Funkenwerk V78m. All very, very nice pieces! 
While I love the Portico 5012, I really liked some of the characteristics of the TAB V78m tube pre. It had this really fat, thick character that was cool in the way that it gave a nice body to vocals with a warm smoothness with nice detail on top--kind of an opulent sound to quote Fletcher. I was hoping to get a pre (or other product) that would give me that kind of sound, but maybe MORE of that tubey goodness!  I'm looking for phatness, a kind of pillowy warm ambient quality, with mucho body and chunkiness to the vocal and other instruments. Basically phat, warm, tubey goodness as I understand it. So I am considering the TAB V78m which is a killer pre, and a great price. But if I can get even more of that warm, phat, tubey goodness in another pre, I might go for that. I'm considering strongly the D W Fearn VT-1, and perhaps the Pendulum MDP-1. The Groove Tubes Vipre or Supre are also contenders. I play everything from acoustic guitar, bass, mandolin, to blues, to rock. As of right now I'm leaning toward getting the D.W. Fearn VT-1 and a Lexicon PCM-91 to get the sound I want ($4,000 is the total budget pretty much).
The only thing that concerns me is that, while my brother and I could clearly hear differences between pre's such as the Great River ME-NV, the Portico, the TAB V-78m, and a Speck, when you listen to the 3D Audio 3D Pre CD, the differences between pre's are very subtle. I'm looking for a substantial difference in sound between the Neve Portico 5012 that I have and whatever I get. I'm hoping that a nice tube pre will give me that warm, phat tubey goodness and that it will be a substantial contrast to the Portico 5012 that I have. What do fellow gearslutz think?
Thanks,
Gonzo |
All I gotta say is mic preamps are much more subtle than people around here would have you believe. The difference between mic pre 1 and mic pre 2 is not usually going to stand out like a sore thumb, after a bit you will notice a difference.
The big difference in my eyes is the addition of these tracks in a mix. One track is like .5% but 50 tracks over the course of a production and this .5% will start to add up.
I say if you like the TAB get the TAB. From what I hear about the Protico it is a really nice unit so I don't think you will step up in quality I think you will just step sideways in color or texture. YMMV....
Oh and it is a bunch of marketing whooy that tubes provide "warm, phat goodness" In my eyes what provides this is a good design, a poorly implemented tube design can be more sterile and cold than it's counterpart. Just want to make sure you are aware of the marketing hype surrounding tube equipment.
The TAB stuff sounds good because it is a quality piece of hardware based on a great design built by folks who know what the hell they are doing. It does not sound good
because they used a tube, it sounds good because they build a good product and it just
happends to use a tube like the gear it was designed after did.