Low End Preamp Shootout

[Trevoire520]

Did a preamp shootout today as I wanted to see for myself if there's any real difference between low end preamps.

The most expensive of these works out at around £60 per channel. The cheapest is about £19 per channel. Though keep in mind there's other things to factor in like conversion, metering, firewire interfaces etc. So this is just a very rough number.

2 of the pre's are stock interface pre's, and 2 are from ADAT preamps.
I'll reveal what the pre's are once there's been a bunch of votes.

6505, mesa cab and an sm57 were used. Sorry guys its just the Shayrn reamps as it's what was handy on my laptop at the time.
All tracks were normalised to an rms of -20dB.

Here's the files!

1

2

3

4

EDIT: Added guitar only files. These are Mp3's as uploading WAV's takes ages!

1 Gtr Only

2 Gtr Only

3 Gtr Only

4 Gtr Only

 

[DanKraw]

I think for me, it's between 3 and 4.

 

[Trevoire520]

171 views, 2 votes and only one post. Hmmm.

Just to try and stir some more interest, I'll reveal what pre's were used, but not which pre is which.

Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
M Audio Profire 2626
Behringer ADA8000
Mackie Onyx 800R

 

[Wisheraser]

Over here, the clearly worst sounding one is 1. It sounds dull and muddy compared to the other 3, which to me sound quite close to each other. I liked 3 the best. 4 sounds pretty close to that, but with some slight nasally-ness that I didn't care for. 2 sounds pretty similar to me, except it doesn't seem to have the same aggressiveness as 3 and 4 (almost like there's a little dip in the high mids or something).

So, order of preference:

1) 3
2) 4
3) 2
4) 1

 

[slayercannibalsuffohead]

4

 

[drew_drummer]

Will listen tomorrow!!

 

[updog]

Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
M Audio Profire 2626
Behringer ADA8000
Mackie Onyx 800R

low end? i mean, these obviously aren't high end but wouldn't you classify some of these more like 'middle range'?


edit. well, per channel i suppose...

 

[Trevoire520]

Yeah the Mackie kinda looks really expensive at first. But it's got a pretty big range of digital connections, meters, high pass and phantom power on every channel. But then you can get the same onyx pre's on the Mackie blackjack which is only £120 for 2 channels.

 

[Trevoire520]

Over here, the clearly worst sounding one is 1. It sounds dull and muddy compared to the other 3,

Funny you say that as every time I listen I think that 3 is the darkest sounding out of the bunch.

I will say that the differences seem to be really, really small. And that there's certainly not a preamp here that will in any way stop you from getting a decent guitar tone. Not even the behringer!

 

[Trevoire520]

In all honesty, I've listened to these over and over and I can't pick out a favourite. I will say that 3 is my least favourite though. But other than that it's a total toss up between the other 3 imo.

 

[Derykus]

It really isn't a big enough of a difference to care. If you put out a mix with 1, nobody is going to say oh man, I wish you'd have used #3 preamp. I bought a Pre-73 and that actually makes a big difference. Brings the guitars forward and makes them bite. Can't wait to try higher end pre's.

 

[Trevoire520]

Yeah man, the only thing that would really make me choose one over the other is the switchable impedance on the Mackie (got another thread for that) as changing the impedance changes the sound quite a bit.

Would love to get a Pre-73 as I've heard that in a couple of shootouts and it definitely has something different about it compared to stock interface pre's. Seems to have a slight bump in the highs and lows, but at the same time less mud in the low end. At least compared to the Profire and Motu that it were in the shootout I listened to.

 

[drew_drummer]

Hmm. I'm not hearing much of a difference, but number 2 sounded slightly more 'airy' to me.

 

[Derykus]

Would love to get a Pre-73 as I've heard that in a couple of shootouts and it definitely has something different about it compared to stock interface pre's. Seems to have a slight bump in the highs and lows, but at the same time less mud in the low end. At least compared to the Profire and Motu that it were in the shootout I listened to.

Impedance switching is definitely nice to have. I was very skeptical that a "real" preamp would make a huge difference, but the Pre-73 really does exactly what you've described. Brings the source material forward, removes some mud, and makes the audio "come alive." Horrible cliche, but it really seems to have that effect. My stock RME and Presonus pre's in comparison sound very bland, distant, and uninspiring.

 

[deLuther]

Switchable impedance is cool thing, but it can be reduced by adapter or modified mic cable, at least for pres without input transformer.
http://www.recordingmag.com/resources/resourceDetail/330.html
I made cable according to this article to change impedance from 1 kOhm to 600 Ohm (like on older consoles), liked result with SM58 more with reduced impedance, although difference was subtle.

 

[kaomao]

to me there's not a huge difference among them, they sound almost the same, but I have to say I listened just to the guitars tracks only mp3's, I think I have to download the waves.

 

[sprack]

4 > 3 > 2 > 1

 

[Trevoire520]

Nearly 600 views and only 11 votes. I suppose I should spill the beans!

1: Mackie Onyx 800R
2: M Audio Profire 2626
3: Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
4: Behringer ADA8000

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

Thanks for the shootout! I haven't used the Focusrite pres before, but it confirmed my opinions of the other 3

 

[Trevoire520]

Personally I was really surprised at how well the Behringer fared. Seems that there's a boost in the high's that makes the guitars pop out, so I guess in this case it's non-linearity actually works in it's favour. I remember a converter shootout thread from Gearslutz a while back where the ADA8000 was put against something pricey (Lynx maybe?) and everyone voted for the Behringer before the results came out. It seems people preferred it because of the high end boost going on somewhere in the pre's/converters.

It's poorer noise performance compared to the other pre's still makes me hesitant to use it on anything essential. Though I guess with distorted guitars they're unlikely to be put through extreme compression or limiting, and the noise floor of the amp is much more significant than that of the pre. So maybe I'll be brave enough to use them in the future.

Surprised at how many people voted for the Focusrite as it was my least favourite of the bunch. Seems a bit darker than all the other pre's. It was probably the only one out of the 4 that I could pick out and say that I definitely liked less than the others. Still more than useable though.

Personally I quite like the Onyx, more because of the tone shaping options given by the switchable impedance than anything else.

To be honest though the difference between these pre's is really, really small. None of them are going to make or break a guitar tone by any means. Kinda makes me wanna sell my more expensive stuff and just get racks full of Behringer :lol as it looks like until you get into more expensive, coloured outboard pre's there's not really much to be gained by going for Focusrite/Mackie etc. At least as far as sound quality is concerned.