I have 4 of em' myself...

They're very clean and neutral. Not a huge amount of gain, but very serviceable! Not a lot of air, but a good frequency response non the less.

They're not a 1073 or a 512... but they smoke the heck out of a Smackie or Bear-ring-errr.

Decent noise floor as long as you don't gag em' wide open.

I wouldn't call them a "Go To" front line pre, but I would (and have) used them as a utility pre... keys, guitars, even drums on occasion.

I say go for it.

Thanks for the reply. Basically someone I know might be throwing them out and I don't know anything about them! If they're worth having then I'll get em (especially if they're better than Mackie pres)!

I already have an M-Audio Tampa and DMP3. How would the MLA7's compare to these?

I'm not familiar with those other pre's, so I can't give you an honest comparison. However, I did compare them to my 1073's, Great River, Langevin, Quad Eight's and console pre's of my GS3000...

They aren't bad, and they certainly don't suck. They're good clean neutral accurate pre's... especially for free (or damn near free)!!

Let's put it this way... I really don't plan on giving mine up anytime soon.