Hey, my next big $ purchase is going to be a high end mic preamp. You have a bunch. What is your go to mic preamp? If Steve was recording Shellac, what preamp would he use for the drum overheads? A lot of what i hear on albums like Action Park and that Wuhrling lp I like so much seems to be very clean and uncolored. If you guys were to start from scratch and only had $1500 to spend on a one or two channel preamp what would it be?

Thanks for your time
-wietlispach

I would look into the Avalon M5. I've read about a lot of vocals being tracked with the M5, and makes any mic sound to its full potential.

John Hardy?

For 1500 you could purchase and build both Hamptone kits, the JFET and the Tube, which would give you 4 ch of amazing microphone preamplification. They aren't ultra-clean like Hardys or GML (more attitude), but they are among some of the best sounding preamps I have used. Swell for overheads.

The Langevin Dual Vocal Combo is really great also. It's built by Manley and includes 2 ch mic pre, glorious selectable hi/lo shelving EQ and 2 ch Electro Optical limiter for about $1600. The limiter is the same circuit that is in the Manley Elop, only with a solid state output. This is a fantastic box.


mtar

Millennia HV-3B