UA 6176 vs. . Avalon VT-737 sp

i'm sure the 6176 has better compression..(1176), but from what i hear its a funny unit.. the avalon is a cleaner unit.. but i'd rater get a great river then a nice compressor.. i usually don't track with eq so its not really needed for me.. the 737 is a nice pre with something like a 414 or a u87..

What is best, red or blue?
What is best, Mercedes or BMW?
What is best, Mac or PC?

You ask which is best, best at what? The 6176 and the 737 are very different and although they both have a mic pre, eq, comp and tubes in them, they each have their strengths and weakness. As for best, neither would be on my list as best. If I and had no other choice than those two, I'd rather have the 6176.

Choices for what? You need to more specific on your needs and what sound it is your trying achieve. There are dozens of possible choices.

My personal vote would be for the 6176, but it all depends on YOUR ears. David

Go to a pro audio dealer and borrow both. Then use them for a few days and decide for yourself.

Its like asking for strawberry or vanilla.

Steve,

It might not be as easy in Portugal as it would be in New Hampshire, Steve. Then again, it might be... I have no real idea! :s:

I have the Avalon 737 and the UA 6176, they both have their uses.
The 737 gets used for bass and acoustic guitar and the 6176 gets used for vocals every time.

Nick

Ok
Give me a couple of days. I'll send u a section off a track.

Nick

I'd like to hear this too - I hope you post it to the thread or at least make the URL available here.

I got the 6176 and I love it!

Would like to try the Avalon (heard good things)

I got the 6176 and I love it!

Would like to try the Avalon (heard good things)

look at the 2108, great for drums, bass, and electric guitar, a great "rock" pre.

The 6176 as a only high end pre would not be my first choice. It has a color that I would not want on all my tracks. If you can afford two maybe you could look at other colors too. That is unless you want another for doing stereo. That pre tends to see duty on mono stuff typicaly. Vocals, and bass mainly. Bass mainly for the comp part of the box. I am digging the 2108 though. We recently put the typical mics up on a Bogner A/Bing them through a Sytek and a 2108. The 2108 was what I prefered every time. It is rock and roll.

Thanks for the tip on the 2108. I have been considering adding it to my arsenal for the very reasons you listed in your post. I love UREI gear.

Tim Stoel

Tim,
If you love UREI gear, you will love this... UA has just released a stereo version of the 1176, the 2-1176!

2-1176

Product description

"The 2-1176 is the evolution of over 35 years of compressor design. Now the ledgendary 1176LN sound is available for the first time as a true dual mono/stereo unit."

Dual-Mono, Stereo Link
Channel Matched Components
Same Vintage Sound
Great Price/Peformance
Universal Audio Web site

I've never tried the 6176, but I owned the 737 for a short while. Here is the story... It was a cold dark night, well day really, and not really cold either, actually quite hot, but we (me and my wife) needed a high end mic pre to do some vocals at home. The 737 looked mighty sexy and apparently sounded good to so I thought, why not! We tracked some vocals and they sounded OK, but not like I was used to hearing in the large studio using a classic neve console. Then we decided to try drums so back to the music store through rain and 100mph winds... oh ya, it was hot, to get a multi-channel mic pre rack. The salesman, now a friend, suggested either the Presonus M80 or the Neumann distributed Precision 8. Well, trusting the association with Neumann, I decided on the Precision 8. When we got home, (I know. It was a nice day) I plugged a bass guitar into one of the built in DI's on this unit. I hit one note, paused in disbelief, and anounced that the Avalon was going back. I still have the Precision 8 which is my only front end, and well, I really don't think much of the 737. It looks expensive (and is) but it sounds like semi-pro gear to me. I also really like the UA 1176's in the chain, so I'm sure the 6176 is worth checking out.

Olá Gabriel,

Do you want a killer sound ?

Neve 1073 (1272) -> Manley ELOP

[ November 16, 2003, 02:57 PM: Message edited by: Thi_mont ]

for what though? Also I own an ELOP and love what this compressor does, tracks perfect on bass, distorted guitars and vocals. I seem to see what your saying not knowing exactlly for what, the ELOP seems to add a glossy top end sheen to whatever you through it and also seems to roll of a little bit of sub (sounds like it starts rolling at 60hz), my overhead setup usaully runs like this, a pair of AKG 414b-TLII's in omni or figure 8 or a pair of 451B's going into my 2108 and than into my ELOP without any compression on a unity makeup setting (1 o'clock). Also I really love the sound of a ribbon mic being used with the ELOP, expecailly a Royer 121. As for the 737 eveytime my first impression I had of it while demoing it at alto music, was it was very thin sounding, not thin cause it was really transparent and didn't color, just thin. We demoed it using a TLM-103 on vocals up against a chandler tube pre (forgot the model # it was a while ago) an Avalon M5, the Universal Audio 2108, and a DBX 786. We tried everything at different gain settings and my best to worst would be the UA, DBX, Chandler, and than the Avalons the M5 being my least favorite. The worst thing the Avalon was like $1500 for a mono unit, with good eq's and an a decent compressor.

I have one of the older versions of the EL OP and i love it to on almost everything... Some people may think I'm nuts but I had a LA2a that I sold, because I used the EL OP all the time and almost never went to the Teletronix. The EL OP is supposedly a LA2a with a Pultec output stage.

I found the comment that the Neve 1073 into the EL OP is a good thing, as I have just received a Great River MP2NV "Mercenary Edition" from Dan Kennedy to review. I am going to have to try this out..

We track tomorrow night, lead guitar overdubs, sax solos and pehaps some background vocals.. I suppose the U87 would be the way to go with the MP2NV and the EL OP combo?? I will use a 421 on the electric guitar solos for sure!

I too also have an older one too before they added the sidechain and got rid of the balance pot. And when you meen a pultec output stage is it because it uses the tubes for gain on the output?

MISCELLANIOUS: "demoed it using a TLM-103 on vocals"

Well there's your problem right there! The TLM is a thin mic to begin with...

It doesn't matter though. I'm on team UA after recently using the 2-610 for a project. It is the softest, warmest new preamp I've heard. This album is the best sounding thing I've done yet, and its almost entirely thanks to UA.

hey dude, spell my name right.... or wrong the right way; well anyway thats exactlly why I used the TLM-103, I was looking for a pre that is full, the UA made the TLM sound fuller, the 737 just sounded thinner than I know the mic to be, specificly in the lower mids and high bass region, making the mic sound thinner. at alto they also had a C12VR which I should of took advantage of since I never heard it ,plus a manley refernce gold which I never heard either. For a transparent pre I'll go for a grace 201, i don't like the "transparency" of the 737.

I’ve been using the Avalon 737 for years. It’s an amazing preamp, but it’s too clean for today’s music. Really depends on what microphone you have paired with, but it puts out a lot high frequencies. This is the reason that I replaced it with the 6176 which I’ve been using for the last few years. Love it running with103 microphone So if I had to pick, I would choose the 6176 all around better unit to me that is why I choose over the Avalon. compressor on Avalon garbage, the preamps are too bright, and no one really uses the equalizer, but you can utilize every piece on the 6176