Tubes in the ART Pro MPA

[Steve-O]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Has anyone heard of or had experience with changing out the stock tubes
in the ART Pro MPA and if so, which make of tubes would be used in
place of the stock? I was told that by doing so you can greatly improve
the over all performance of the unit...? True or False...?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

steve-o <swildey@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>Has anyone heard of or had experience with changing out the stock tubes
>in the ART Pro MPA and if so, which make of tubes would be used in
>place of the stock? I was told that by doing so you can greatly improve
>the over all performance of the unit...? True or False...?

See, the "tube" stage in the Pro MPA isn't like a normal tube stage. It
isn't operating the tube anywhere near the envelope where it's designed
to be working.

So if you change the tube, you don't know WHAT will happen. It might be
better, it might be worse. Normally you can use the characteristic curves
in the tube handbook to tell you what will happen with a given tube in
a given circuit. But these guys are running the tube with only 50V on
the plate, for exaggerated distortion. The tube handbooks won't even HAVE
a line on the plot for such a low plate voltage, because the 12AX7 was
never designed to work that way.

I can't imagine anything is going to improve the overall performance of
the Pro MPA other than a trash compactor, but it won't hurt to get a
selection of inexpensive 12AX7 types and see what they do. Don't expect
anything predictable, though.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Tue, 02 Aug 2005 13:06:37 -0700, steve-o wrote:

> Has anyone heard of or had experience with changing out the stock tubes in
> the ART Pro MPA and if so, which make of tubes would be used in place of
> the stock? I was told that by doing so you can greatly improve the over
> all performance of the unit...? True or False...?

Hate to break this to ya, but that's kinda like asking
what's the best brand of beer to drink for pissin' in the
wind.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

ti, 02 elo 2005 20:06:37 GMT paivatussa viestissaan steve-o otti ja
tokaisi, jotta:

> Has anyone heard of or had experience with changing out the stock tubes
> in the ART Pro MPA and if so, which make of tubes would be used in
> place of the stock? I was told that by doing so you can greatly improve
> the over all performance of the unit...? True or False...?
>

Well, I have no experience with the Pro MPA, but I have used original ART
Tube MP and Behringer MIC200 (somewhat similar "starved plate" design).
Replacing ART's original Chinese 12AX7 tube with a NOS Philips ECC83 a
friend gave me a slightly smoother sound. Both models sounded much better,
more balanced and less distorted with (JJ Electronics') ECC82 (12AU7)
tubes. Unfortunately, this didn't help MIC200's limiter at all - it's
still pretty much unusable. (The unit's other preset eq settings without
the limiter are okay, though.)

As the other posters have noted in their pretty direct way, the tube
replacement doesn't suddenly change these units to quality tube mic
preamps. They're still lo-fi cheapos, best regarded as "character pieces"
for special uses.

I have used them more as a bass DI's than mic pres.

Regards,

jPM

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <pan.2005.08.02.22.02.16.740500@control.gov> maxwellsmart@control.gov writes:

> Hate to break this to ya, but that's kinda like asking
> what's the best brand of beer to drink for pissin' in the
> wind.

Well, I surely wouldn't waste a good Sam Adams on that. Bud for sure.



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