Class A Tube mic pre for under $400, with Jenson X

Coldsnow · 17th May 2003, 12:48 AM

OK it isn't new but I thought I'd pass on my new find. Peavey has discontinued there TMP-1 single channel, class A all tube mic pre (tube on both input and output stage) high voltage. So I bought one for $160 from Medley Music in Phili. Called up Audio Upgrades and sent him the schematics I got from Peavey. He said the mic pre design is similar to the VMP2 and he could make it sound better. So I sent it to him and for $225 he put in Jenson input transformer and upgraded any caps with the high grade stuff. The results is one increadible (clean sounding) tube mic pre. The one negative is that the phantom is only 24 vt which means you have to crank up the gain for phantom powered mics and you can get a little noise (although not excessive by any means). Anyways, I use a tube mic which has it's own power supply so it doesn't matter to me. The pre holds it's own against other great mic pre's I've tried it beside GR NV, Vintech and others I've tried it along with. Has more high end then those models and is slightly cleaner but has a nice tube sweetness.

**Tim Farrant** · 17th May 2003, 01:11 AM

Sounds like you got a bargin there Coldsnow !

It's amazing the difference capacitors can make to the sound of electronics. Whilst some say your better off without them, unfortunately some designs require their use.

In our MA2.2 mic preamp we use WIMA brand coupling caps and they cost us an arm and a leg !! so we decided to try cheaper caps from Taiwan and China. We auditioned about 5 different brands against the WIMA's and found nothing that sounded as good. Even though we could not measure any difference, most of the cheaper caps lacked bottom end and made the MA2.2 sound harsh. Very interesting experiment, but we do continue with the WIMA's...

Cheers
Tim
Buzz Audio

Coldsnow · 17th May 2003, 02:32 AM

Yea, you can definetly hear a bid difference in this mic pre, I'm sure some of it has to do with the replacing the transformer with a Jenson, but I'll bet the caps had a lot to do with it as well, particularly when using the transformerless output (the TMP has both). But overall, something I've noticed is when you add some high end eq to a recorded vocal, tracks recorded on the lower cost units (I'm generalizing of course not all I'm sure) tend to break up and not sound good, where tracks recorded on a higher end mic pre tend to get airy. So that is always one of my tests when trying out a new mic pre (of course it depends on how much high end the mic pre has to begin with as well).

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17th May 2003, 12:48 AM	#1
Coldsnow Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 566	Class A Tube mic pre for under $400, with Jenson X OK it isn't new but I thought I'd pass on my new find. Peavey has discontinued there TMP-1 single channel, class A all tube mic pre (tube on both input and output stage) high voltage. So I bought one for $160 from Medley Music in Phili. Called up Audio Upgrades and sent him the schematics I got from Peavey. He said the mic pre design is similar to the VMP2 and he could make it sound better. So I sent it to him and for $225 he put in Jenson input transformer and upgraded any caps with the high grade stuff. The results is one increadible (clean sounding) tube mic pre. The one negative is that the phantom is only 24 vt which means you have to crank up the gain for phantom powered mics and you can get a little noise (although not excessive by any means). Anyways, I use a tube mic which has it's own power supply so it doesn't matter to me. The pre holds it's own against other great mic pre's I've tried it beside GR NV, Vintech and others I've tried it along with. Has more high end then those models and is slightly cleaner but has a nice tube sweetness.

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17th May 2003, 01:11 AM	#2
Tim Farrant Moderator Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: New Zealand Posts: 1,760	Sounds like you got a bargin there Coldsnow ! It's amazing the difference capacitors can make to the sound of electronics. Whilst some say your better off without them, unfortunately some designs require their use. In our MA2.2 mic preamp we use WIMA brand coupling caps and they cost us an arm and a leg !! so we decided to try cheaper caps from Taiwan and China. We auditioned about 5 different brands against the WIMA's and found nothing that sounded as good. Even though we could not measure any difference, most of the cheaper caps lacked bottom end and made the MA2.2 sound harsh. Very interesting experiment, but we do continue with the WIMA's... Cheers Tim Buzz Audio

17th May 2003, 02:32 AM	#3
Coldsnow Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 566	Yea, you can definetly hear a bid difference in this mic pre, I'm sure some of it has to do with the replacing the transformer with a Jenson, but I'll bet the caps had a lot to do with it as well, particularly when using the transformerless output (the TMP has both). But overall, something I've noticed is when you add some high end eq to a recorded vocal, tracks recorded on the lower cost units (I'm generalizing of course not all I'm sure) tend to break up and not sound good, where tracks recorded on a higher end mic pre tend to get airy. So that is always one of my tests when trying out a new mic pre (of course it depends on how much high end the mic pre has to begin with as well).