Dumb Question

[PHILANDDON]

What is bandwidth? How important is wide bandwidth? The guy at Groove Tubes was telling me that the suPRE has more bandwidth than the Presonus ADL 600. Is that just salestalk/marketing?

[T.RayBullard]

Originally Posted by PHILANDDON

What is bandwidth? How important is wide bandwidth? The guy at Groove Tubes was telling me that the suPRE has more bandwidth than the Presonus ADL 600. Is that just salestalk/marketing?

The wider the bandwidth, the better the fidelity, allegedly. That being said, I wouldnt trust anyone with an agenda. The GT guy obviously has an agenda. You havent found anything yet?? havent you been hunting for a long time? what about the DAV or hamptone??youd have one "clean" and one "mojo" for less than 2gs..

[PHILANDDON]

I know. I used to move fast with these purchases. Now, I just kinda obssess. If I had the $$, I'd get the ADL 600, the AEA TRP, and maybe the DAV.............Lately, I've been leaning more towards the ADL 600. I just keep hearing the best things about it....

[Legacy]

Thats quite a broad list of different colors for a short list

What are you after sonically?

While I think wide bandwidth is one of many important things for a preamp to have, saying that it is a deciding factor for choosing one over the other is a stretch at best. How many of the ones on your short list have you been able to hear?

Best,
Silas

[PHILANDDON]

I haven't been able to hear any of them....

I'd be recording my AEA R84 and/or other ribbons (I have my eye on the AEA R92) and/or my pair of AKG C414B-XLS direct to tape or to my DAW. Going for an old-time country music vibe............

[Legacy]

Hi Phil,

Sorry to further stir the pot but what about a John Hardy M1 with the Xformer options. Plenty of gain to drive ribbons and a little bit of transformer color and weight. Fantastic pre for just about anything. I've heard very good things about the ADL600 and would like to hear it but wonder if it will be too much color for a "use it on everything" preamp - ie the mix might get overwhelming / congested - pure speculation.

Just brainstorming here - the A-Designs Pacifica is supposed to be somewhat based on the Quad console preamps which could have been used on some early country records. What era are we talking about?

The ribbons will get you closer than anything else which you already know so I suggest not overthinking the preamp purchase. Get something that is high-end and holds its value reasonably well for re-sale and dive in

-S

[Fletcher]

Originally Posted by PHILANDDON

What is bandwidth?

The area between the corner points of where the unit begins to roll off on the top and the bottom. You see the specification 20-20,000 Hz? That's the bandwidth of the unit.

How important is wide bandwidth?

The theory is that human hearing extends from 20Hz on the low end to 20kHz on the top end. The reality is that we [humans] can perceive a frequency response way beyond the range of human hearing.

These frequency response issues take the form of "phase response" issues. Without getting too "Mr. Science" about it, different frequencies travel at different speeds even in the realm of electronics.

When a signal hits a filter the frequency area where that signal has been hit by the filter has it's "speed" altered, which results in what is known as a "phase anomolie".

In the case of something like a Mackie board, one of the main reasons it sounds "small" and "barky" next to something like a Neve board is because of it's reduced bandwidth, which results in phase anomolies that cause the low end and high end to be slowed allowing the upper midrange [in the like 2-4kHz area] come out of the desk first. This is one of the reasons why the [Mackie] desk sounds like it's "barking" at you and lacks depth of field and resolution.

When you hit the "loading" switch on the Great River MP-2NV you're flattening the frequeny response from about 8Hz to 83kHz. If you don't hit the loading switch [which puts a proper load on the input and output transformers] there will be a "ring" [sort of an oscillation but not rally] up arond 63kHz [well out of the theoretical range of human hearing]... on many sound sources you will hear a better sense of "air" with the loading switch not engaged than you will hear with the loading switch engaged. This will be an artistic decision you will need to make from experimentation.

The guy at Groove Tubes was telling me that the suPRE has more bandwidth than the Presonus ADL 600. Is that just salestalk/marketing?

It very well could be. Listen to the two units next to each other and make an informed decision. Ain't no motherfvcker ever walked down the street humming the mic pre... but having the right pre that enhances and supports the musical statement is of paramount importance. With the right pre-amp the performer can be inspired to give a performance beyond their capabilities to perform just because the sound they're hearing back is so damn cool.

It's small, hard to quanitify things like that which make recording as much [if not more] of an art as it is a science.

Peace.

[artbeat77]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

Ain't no motherfvcker ever walked down the street humming the mic pre

That is a gem.

[Dissdnt_penguin]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

The theory is that human hearing extends from 20Hz on the low end to 20kHz on the top end. The reality is that we [humans] can perceive a frequency response way beyond the range of human hearing.

Peace.

A phycisist friend of mine told me about a lecture he attended at a congress, where a guy that builds mexican prehispanic musical instruments gave a very interesting demonstration.

It consisted in blowing a whistle the Aztec people used before engaging in a battle to enter in a berseker-like frenzy. It produced no auditory sensation, but everybody in the room began to feel very uneasy.

I don't know the exact frequency, since the aim of the lecture was questioning some of our conceptions about human senses rather than discussing the whistle itself, but one possible conclusion is there's more infromation we can get from mechanical waves hitting our ears than what we can actually hear.

Just thought it would be a nice addition to your statement.

DP