The ART Digital MPA-II 2-Channel Tube preamp is a fantastic tool for recording. In this detailed review, we’ll explore what it can do, how well it works, and how easy it is to use, so you can decide if it’s right for you.
Key Features
- A flexible tube preamp with two channels
- Good analog-to-digital conversion for high quality sound
- Changeable input settings for different microphones
- Digital connections to easily work with your recording equipment
- LED meters to show sound levels
- Strong and long-lasting build
Performance
The ART Digital MPA-II doesn’t just amplify your audio; it breathes life into it. With its tube-driven warmth, your recordings sound richer and more authentic.
- Clear Sound Quality: The preamp turns your audio into a digital format while keeping it crystal clear, ensuring your recordings are excellent.
- Adjustable Input: You can change the input setting to perfectly match different microphones.
- Easy Digital Connection: You can connect it to your digital audio workstation directly, so you don’t need extra converters.
- Level Monitoring Made Easy: The LED VU meters make it quick and easy to check audio levels accurately.
- Strong and Durable: The MPA-II is built to withstand tough professional use and last a long time.
Pros
- Tube warmth for organic sound
- Flexible impedance options
- Easy digital integration
- Precise level monitoring
- Durable construction
Cons
- Pricey
- Bulky design
Conclusion
The ART Digital MPA-II 2-Channel Tube preamp is like a super-strong tool for music and recording. Although it has a couple of drawbacks, it can make your recordings sound really good and offers a lot of useful options. It’s a good choice for musicians and sound experts who want to invest in their equipment.
Nic –
After unboxing and testing every input and output thoroughly, I can say this preamp is really great for the money. I did extensive research on this before the purchase, and in that research the gear snobs universally said it didn’t sound that good. I’m happy to say that they are all wrong. Either biased opinions or they didn’t actually try the product.Because of the full signal passing the tube, it truly flavors the signal with that good tube warmth everyone likes. Even the stock tubes sound decent enough on vocals, but where this excels is as a bass preamp. Holy cow, does this thing make my bass purr in the best way possible with the stock tubes.With vocals I could imagine a tube with better 500-2khz response being a great replacement and making this sound even better. I’d say bottom line is you can customize the tube and get a wide range, depending on what you need.The digital part is really nice and using it to expand inputs on an interface is so helpful (and 196k to boot). But, read the manual before set up. It clearly states to keep gain levels low when switching the internal clock sync. Once I got things set up, it worked well with virtually no bad floor noise. I will suggest though there is a graininess to the signal that doesn’t sound bad, but isnt transparent. I’m assuming you wouldn’t be using a low cost tube preamp if you didn’t want to add that character. For that reason, I’d knock a half star. Still love the sound for certain applications but just know it’s not totally clean.Here’s the other half star: I did experience a failure of the internal clock. After messing with it, it randomly turned back on. It was frustrating and makes me question reliability on the data side. It momentarily blinked when on 44khz and when I turned the knob, only some sampling rates were available. However, when I got it back up and running, no other issues. I’ll update the review if I experience other issues or the problem returns.Overall, I love having two extra input channels to my DAW and I love the sound of this thing both clean and overdriven. Definitely love the bass and guitar through this preamp, while vocals I think don’t have quite the brightness and transparency I want. I do like this with overhead mics on drums too, which might be surprising. But the 5k-12k response on the tube is good so cymbals get the benefit.I would recommend this, for a project studio or for bass in live context.EDIT: discovered the source of internal clock failures. You must zero all your gain channels prior to start-up and disengage the +20 dB switch. The manual says to reduce gain but I’ve noticed it must completely zero out. Also, turn on your slave clock source first, then the art preamp. The first failure was the blinking blue light and clock wouldn’t engage. The second was much scarier, as there were loud clicks that sounded like hard mechanical failure.After restarting the device with zero gain, I allowed it to warm up. After that I had no audible issues. I have noticed the gain VU does not work now.
DiamondPilot –
I bought this to improve upon the pres in my saffire pro 40. It is a definite upgrade, and adds nice warmth and tube color. It also does a great job smoothing the sibilance on my CAD M179 vocal mic, and adds really nice buttery fullness to the mids on my vox. I agree with te reviewers that say you should change out the stock tubes. I replaced one with a tung-sol and the other with A JJ gold pin long plate. There was a definite improvement, as the stock tubes had a midrangey quality that seemed a little constricted. The variable impedance feature and continuously variable low-pass a great for dialing in the exact tone from your mic and removing unwanted low-end junk. I also agree that there are some issues with QC, as mine had the LED meter installed too far forward and the plate that covers the bare DIP LED package had come off and was floating around in the box. And, the right rack ear was slightly bent. But, it works great and sounds extremely good for the price. I’ve had no issues with digital sync via toslink S/PDIF and slaving the saffire to it, anywhere between the 48 kHz and 96 kHz rates supported by the focusrite interface.Recommended!
DE –
This is a great preamp. I’m not really qualified to review audio equipment, but it’s got low noise, excellent clarity, and it’s easy to use. Compared with my USB interface’s bulit-in preamps, it’s noticeably better. The MPA-II is great with instrument inputs, even with high-gain digital effects. If you trim the inputs carefully, the MPA-II is also very graceful at handling overloads, sending the tubes into overdrive rather than giving you a nasty hard clipping sound. This gives me a little extra freedom to be sloppy when I set the input levels, and I really appreciate it with electric bass or with percussive sounds. The preamp is also flexible enough to handle more difficult sources like ribbon mics, thanks to the adjustable input impedance.
Kush Nahar –
This was delivered in very good condition. The packaging was very good and the product was delivered scratchless. It was also delivered within the given time-frame. Th only possible issue is that the site mentions it’s weight as 3 lbs where this weighed around 6 kg. The weight specification are especially important for people who will travel with this equipment on flight as there are weight restrictions. Other than that, I am very pleased with everything the way it turned out.Also, this seller is about $30 cheaper as compared to prices of other online vendors. So that is a really good bargain in every respect.
rirabass –
Just scratching the surface of the possibilities, I’d say this has been a great investment. Durability remains to be seen.
Zach Mejia –
Ive been using this for about a year now with an 18i20 and octopre. Love it so much!
Electric Eccentric –
The unit that was delivered had its wordclock connections destroyed (prior to interior plastic wrap). No damage to external or internal boxes, yet digital applications were not present. Am only using tube/analog section.
Lakis.LLC –
Product was used but they sold as new
Fer –
Buena alternativa a bajo coste.Es muy buena alternativa como previo de válbulas a bajo coste. Aunque todavía no lo he hecho todo el mundo recomienda cambiar las válbulas por otras mejores. De momento el resultado es bueno y mejora mucho el sonido de guitarras, bajos y voces sobre todo cuando grabas por línea los dos primeros.