For the common use of mic pres being to amplify a mic's signal and to add coloration to the signal, it makes things quite difficult when you look at most cheap tube pres that have solid state components that uses a single or up to three tubes as a buffering to achieve tube saturation becuase the tubes headroom is set so much higher than the ss components.
I have been looking for pure class A mic pres however its really difficult to tell which are true all tube and not tube buffered, except for the more expensive pres which have a whole shit load of bells and whistles that are really not needed and raise the price to over the top levels.
Anyway, my question is what is the cheapest true all tube class A mic pre out there? Only has to be one channel, just tubes, correct impedence and nothing more.
I am almost contemplating on building one myself, with 2 transformers maybe the first one with variable impedence, 3 gain stages with input and output levels. Should be a clean way to run the entire signal through a tube, dial in the amount of saturation and input impedence desired and a output level.
I am pretty sure there are pres out there like that, but I fear if i were to pick up say a behringer that claims its all tube that its another SS pre with tubes buffering like the cheap one I already have. that design defeats the purpose of having a tube in them since you can't drive them hard enough to get any coloration.
so what are my options on the market? What out there is a real single channel all tube preamp that doesn't break the bank?
I have been looking for pure class A mic pres however its really difficult to tell which are true all tube and not tube buffered, except for the more expensive pres which have a whole shit load of bells and whistles that are really not needed and raise the price to over the top levels.
Anyway, my question is what is the cheapest true all tube class A mic pre out there? Only has to be one channel, just tubes, correct impedence and nothing more.
I am almost contemplating on building one myself, with 2 transformers maybe the first one with variable impedence, 3 gain stages with input and output levels. Should be a clean way to run the entire signal through a tube, dial in the amount of saturation and input impedence desired and a output level.
I am pretty sure there are pres out there like that, but I fear if i were to pick up say a behringer that claims its all tube that its another SS pre with tubes buffering like the cheap one I already have. that design defeats the purpose of having a tube in them since you can't drive them hard enough to get any coloration.
so what are my options on the market? What out there is a real single channel all tube preamp that doesn't break the bank?
