Hey, I plan on buying the great river MP-2h and an MP-2NV. My only questoin is, for the people who have used both of these preamps, when did they actually prefer to use the Mp-2h over the NV and vica versa. I know this is an opinion subjective question, but I would just like to see what the G.R Users have to say. Thanx alot for the help. Take it easy.

For me there is no preference as far as a quality issue. They are both built like tanks, and have huge amounts of headroom and quiet gain. Both preamps are complimentary to each other, and lend themselves to various audio tasks around the studio where you may not exclusively prefer one specific type of sound on. The MP-2H is very natural and interesting sounding...I think Jensens have a common sound to them even though the designs may vary (also used by Pendulum, Daking, Hardy, etc).


A Jensen in particular, to my ears anyway, seems to impart this really nice clean smoothness to the audio. But the MP-2H is not airy and delicate, it's solid & tough sounding. It definitely differs in tone from a completely transformerless design, which tend to sound more invisible (BTW the regular MP-2 is transformerless on the output w/ Jensens on the input compared to the MP-2H which has transformers on both the ins and outs). It goes from a little more open to a little more solid sounding with the Jensens on the ins and outs. The NV is very thick and rich and has great coloration. But it also has been designed so it doesn't get the common accumulated sonic mud that is common on many vintage Neve designs. Personally, I like the idea of having both a clean and character preamp in the rack. For the way I work, having those choices are extremely important. And Great River is definitely one of the best out there both in the great customer service they have provided for us as both end users and dealers as well as providing a kick ass American made product.

jjaacc1, Nathan did a great job of laying out the technical issues (as usual) and I thought I might expand a bit on the applications.

I really like the MP-2 on most any acoustical instruments especially guitar. It is a very fast and transparent and is it also does a great job things with a lot of attack like a snare.

But as much as I like the MP-2 the MP-2NV (and 1NV) are my favorite. The NV is very versatile does a wonderful job on vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar and kick.

The NV is based on the Neve 1073 design and the MP-2 is Dan Kennedys own design. The NV has the ability to change the input impedance and loading using front panel switches. This gives you a wide of choices when matching a particular mic with the Great River NV.

For guitar work you can overdrive the input and put the transformer into saturation. This allows you get a great rough sounding electric or bass guitar sound.

If you are thinking about the GR my opinion is go for the NV first. Both are great sounding mic pres and you will not be disappointed with either one.

Lee

I use the MP when I'm after 'accuracy' and the NV for 'big'. Except for those situations where I want to have the input impedance option...

Then I use the NV for that in the MP for something else...