The ART is probably as good as any of the alternitves at its price point. Good mic pres usually cost much more than $500 a channel and all the cheap stuff is pretty much the same thing ... some of these pres are marketed as being better and different sounding but for the large part they all sound like ass when compared to great pres like Neves / Great River (fat) or Millennia / Earthworks (neutral) ....

I do tell people not to go with Behringer gear for a number of reasons... but the main reason I will mention here is the build quality is very poor.. made with cheap parts with wide tolerences by people who probably ride an ox cart to work ....

In your place, I would just stick with the ART until I was ready to take the plunge into some good pres ... save your money.

Kurt Foster

Also sometimes you get lucky and get a real good tube Mp- I used
to have a real sweet sounding one and a couple of other not so sweet sounding ones... Kurt is right, get it for $50 or so, use it, and when you put together some real money get a real good pre-

Thanks guys :)

'Glowing tubes'

igotnosmoke wrote: Thanks guys :)

I have an ART DIO - it's not bad as long as you keep the gain down. It's a hearable step up from the mackie.

One hint though: If the preamp has a little orange LED stuck behind the tube to make it 'glow', you know that you are talking about quality...

Has anyone tried replacing the tube that is supplied with the unit? Perhaps switching out the LED makes more of a difference in the sound :>