Years back, I borrowed a friend's original SMP-2 for my amateur home solo recordings on my Steinway D.
The Forssell and the Fearn VT2 had the most open, sweet and musical sound out of the many pres I tried.
I lost the desire to record at home - these days I prefer to leave that to the Pro engineers , my time is better spent practicing and writing - but "that" sound is itched in my mind.
As a practical result, SMP-2b has yet a bit more sophisticated sound than SMP-2a in most aspects, I tested it in detail. Life is an evolution Except vocals, I don't use any other preamp than SMP-2 on everything. Simply amazing.
I will soon compare the Fearn and some other new mic pres I've bought to Acousence, Pueblo etc., and post the results in the mic pre thread mentioned above.
We still have few last amazing SMP-2 preamps available ... (MADA-2 maybe too if ordered ASAP). If interested , please let me know ... I don't use anything else in my studio ...
I bought one from Ivo. Rack format. It's one of the best pre-amp ever made. It's quite "uncoloured" machine.
But It's have guts and mojo too! Super if you record piano, vocal, acoustic, anything, and want to start more processing( if needed), from pure table
Forssell is audio history.
Greetings
Johannes