I haven't compared the two, but I do have the MP-2NV version, and one reason I bought it instead of the original version was that at the time, my main pair of SD mic's were Neumann KM-184's, which are tilted up a bit in the high frequencies. I thought the "Neve-ish" flavor of the 2NV would help tone that down a bit.

I know a little more now than I did a few years ago when I got the 2NV, but I think my basic reasoning was sound... match your mic collection to your pre's. I think this is one of the best gear investments I've ever made. The 2NV ranges from clean to colored, depending on how hard you drive the main gain stage. It will never get as clean as the original GR pre, but the clean end of the range is nothing to sneeze at. Also, the 2NV has additional useful features like 2 switches that change impedance and transformer loading for subtle tone changes, two DI inputs (killer for electric guitar or bass), and enough gain for ribbon mics. I read somewhere that one of the main design criteria for this thing was that it should work well with ribbon mics (i.e. have enough gain for quiet acoustic sources, not just drums). I still don't have a ribbon mic but it's nice to know the pre is ready for it.

My next preamp purchase will be something super-clean for contrast.... maybe a Gordon, maybe a Forssell Fetcode... I'm not sure yet. I'm definitely happy that this was my first high-end pre choice, several years ago.

P.S. I record primarily acoustic instruments -- solo acoustic guitar, resonator guitar, hand percussion, violin, piano, voice. I don't find the 2NV too "colored" for these sources, but your mileage may vary.

thanks for your reply. Any chance you have a MP3 recorded with the MP-2NV that you could forward to me? If so, please forward via the contact link on my website.

Thanks!

Rob A

http:// has some samples.

very cool link, thanks john

The MH is clean/crisp/bright (but musical)

The NV is thicker/far more colored/softer and more subdued in the highs

I would tend to do the following with each:

Fiddle, kick, bass (upright or electric), brighter vocals, toms, electric guitar, possibly banjo if mic is bright, dobro: Great River 2NV

Overheads, acoustic guitar, normal vocals, snare, mandolin, normal piano: Great River MH

If you are looking for somewhat inbetween these sounds (but leaning slightly closer to the MH sound), I would look into the Buzz Audio MA 2.2 TX (the one with the Sowter transformer on the output).

Nathan:

Thanks for the post...very helpful. I appreciate it!

i cant agree with nathan on that. i found the mh to be really good for guitars and the nv to be really good for over heads i found the difference in textures was really good for bringing out teh flavors of each osund and made them work good together.

i had a buzz 2.2 for a week and hated it my john hardy pre's were much deeper and musical sounding i found the buzz to sound like a poor mans Millennia my sebatron is a much better partner for my nv than the buzz pre it's got a really nice color to the sound that goes much nicer with the nv and the sebatron is really good pair with the mh

Johnson Cabasa wrote: i cant agree with nathan on that. i found the mh to be really good for guitars and the nv to be really good for over heads i found the difference in textures was really good for bringing out teh flavors of each osund and made them work good together.

i had a buzz 2.2 for a week and hated it my john hardy pre's were much deeper and musical sounding i found the buzz to sound like a poor mans Millennia my sebatron is a much better partner for my nv than the buzz pre it's got a really nice color to the sound that goes much nicer with the nv and the sebatron is really good pair with the mh

That's fine, everyone hears differently. It just goes against the grain in regards to what hundreds of people I personally deal with are finding (engineers, myself, and customers that are from my studio, which are musicians) . But as always YMMV.

I find I like my NV on overheads, piano samples and ac / elec gtrs. Nice and juicy. Don't like it much for bass though. I use it constantly with an R-121 and it rocks. Not too dark as I've heard some say.