ART TPS II Tube Preamplifier System

I became interested in tube preamps after reading an interview with one of my favorite guitarists, Greg Sage. He built his own that can be heard on all the Wipers records. I loved that sound, especially on the vocals and guitar. I first did cursory research into tube preamps, I found they can be cost prohibitive, especially if you want a 2 channel model as I did. I’ve used my akai interface’s preamps for several years and then done the rest in the box with plugins. Because I’m a hobbyist, this didn’t matter to me at first, but as I dived deeper into home recording, I wanted to improve the quality of my signal in order to make better mixes. There’s nothing worse than spending hours during mixing trying to “polish a turd”, so to speak. We’ve all been there and dealt with that frustration. A preamp can make improvements from the beginning to your unmixed signal, which makes for an overall better recording experience. At the same time, I didn’t want to pay $500 plus for something that I had no experience with. As others have said this, this is a entry level preamp, but the one I received has made a noticeable improvement to my mixes right away. And it is an affordable two channel model. I suggest taking the time to test each setting on the TPS with the mic you’re using to ensure it will suit your needs. I’ve used it with an MXL 770 on vocals and it sounds great with a little eq and compression afterward. I’ve also used both channels when tracking guitar using an sm57 and a beta 57. The most noticeable thing I’ve noticed is that the preamp adds pleasant clarity to these things, making it far more enjoyable to listen to. I’ve also noticed my tracks take reverbs and other timed effects much better than previously. I’m interested to how it will sound on drum overheads and will experiment with this later. To close, this is a great entry level product. I suggest it to hobbyists like myself who have never “bitten the bullet” with outboard gear and are looking to expand their audio engineering knowledge. At a later time, I’ll purchase a more professional preamp, but for now I’m very pleased with this. Thank you!

Sounds is good

I originally bought this for a friend that was trying to setup a small home studio. It was easily the biggest audio-purchasing mistake I have ever made. We plugged the ART TPS up and it sounded horrible so, I said "screw it I will switch out the tube with a mesa-boogie". Well I opened up the ART TPS switched out the tube and it made absolutely no difference! I thought I may have done something wrong took a closer look and was surprised by what I found. The ART TPS is simply a solid state preamp (a poor one at that) which runs the signal through the tube in an attempt to add some warmth. This is just an absolute waste of money. Alternatives: I am not a fan of bringing up a problem then not providing an alternative so here are a few good choices for preamps. 1. The Mackie Blackjack. It uses the same excellent onyx preamps you will find in their higher end models. They have an amazing amount of gain (enough to drive a dynamic mic without noise) and a hint of warmth. Also you get a very good computer interface. Best part is that it is the same price as the TPS 2. 2. The ART MPA. I know it seems odd that I slam one ART product only to recommend another but, the MPA unlike the TPS 2 is a true tube preamp. Stock it sounds pretty good but if you switch out the tubes it can sound great. Although it is about twice the price as the TPS 2. 3. The Presonus Bluetube. I have not personally used this preamp but have some friends that really like it. The Bluetube costs slightly more than the TPS 2.

I hadn't payed too much attention to ART for a good 5 years, when they suddenly started selling Tube Studio MP preamps for 30 bucks and I realized that they were a must have for my Korg Monotron/tribes. The TPS II appears to be 2 Studio MP V3s in a 1U package, best of all, a single power cord instead of 2 wall warts! The board inside is made up of high quality components, although with the stock 12ax7B China tube, there will be some noise at extreme levels. I do not personally find the V3 settings to be too useful, although the electric keyboard setting I find nice for electronic music. Otherwise I keep it at flat. The stock tube is alright, with that expected high gain and overly bright midrange. I replaced it after a few hours of use with a new stock, tung-sol gold $20 tube with well balanced triods. This allowed me to overdrive the BEEP out of my preamp signal, without getting background noise or distortion from the TPS II. With the adjustable output signal, at the same time it doesn't overload the next gear in the chain (unlike the Studio MP or V3 which output very loud signals if you run the tube hard). The overall light levels generated by the TPS II, are pleasant without being as harshly bright like many devices with VU meters. The 1/4" insert channels on the front are missing from many rack mount tube pre-amps and I have found much more useful than I thought they would be. The knobs feel smooth and solid. Oh and it has an off/on switch! None of that "standby, power wasting BS" present in nearly every electronic device today. Sure there are better hybrid pre-amps out there for twice as much, in 2U cases. But for the price and size, I'd call it a bargain.

don't know how anyone could be disliking this. For any reason. These have been sold for years in the same format. Unfortunately the price continues to constantly inflate. Just glad they keep it in production. I'm using it as a tube preamp for everything. Especially extended/standard range guitars. Ain't no pedal or guitar gear comparable or equal. TPS-2 monster gain structure will boost the cheapest pickups or long pedal / FX chains. The great feature about it is you can go HI-Z LO-Z in and come out HI-Z OR LO-Z out! And both at once! Try that with cheesy, inflated guitar pedals! Just that feature alone makes this a "must have" guitar unit. It's still available as a single mono channel stand alone unit, however the rack unit stores easily and you will find an additional use for the second channel in the path. Using TPS-2 as a preamp into a power amplifier for stereo guitar is not only, the best way, it's probably the ONLY WAY. (Does anyone make stereo guitar preamps anymore??) There Ain't nothing like the sound or flexibility of dual pedal chains in stereo! Stereo outs using pedals are not as accurate nor as clear of a stereo format. Pedal chains performance are increased weather they are fed from the input or the output. High gain signal structure that is controllable and directable. Please don't stop production of this benchmark unit.

Great pre amp! I love it. For an entry leve pre, it’s amazing how warm the sound is, and how easy is to use

I bought this ART TPS II to add some tube warmth to my home A/V system, which I also use in my hobby - digital audio restoration of LPs and tapes (not for pro use). While it sure looks cool (and only takes up 1 RU in my rack), I can't recommend it for several reasons. First, quality control is lacking. Mine arrived defective; one of the input LEDs was on constantly regardless of input. And the input LEDs were not balanced between Channels 1 and 2; one read much higher than the other. Second, the presets on the V3 knobs limit the choices available. I couldn't find one that sounded right, either too bright or not enough clarity. (BTW, I prefer the term tube "clarity" or tube "sweetness" to "warmth" since that describes what I'm looking for better.) Third, there's no bypass switch to A/B the unit in or out of the system. However, the seller, Musician's Friend, was very easy to deal with. A quick phone call to a very nice customer service woman gave me free shipping back and a prompt refund. So I'd recommend them highly. A much better option for a hybrid tube preamp is the Behringer T1954 Tube Ultrafex, which I bought elsewhere (Amazon/Musician's Friend don't carry it). The Behringer is much better quality, both physically and sound-wise. It's extremely flexible, with an array of knobs to adjust various parameters in both the high and low frequency ranges (lacking in the ART). It has special circuitry that phase-shifts the program based on frequency to align the bass with the other frequencies (to correct delays introduced during the recording process) for stronger, more balanced bass. It has an easy-to-use Noise Reduction sensitivity control coupled with 3 LEDs, which boosts the highs without adding noise. It has a Surround Processor which generates an ambient signal, delays it based on the music, then mixes it back. The sound is a revelation. Finally, I've got that wonderful, smooth, sweet, clear sound of live music that only tubes can provide. And for $10 less than the ART! This is the second piece of Behringer gear I own, and I still can't figure how they make such high quality stuff at ridiculously low prices. And I haven't mentioned how cool this T1954 looks, with big "retro" VU meters and two 12AX7A's behind the glass windows. Highly recommended.

This was one of my first preamp buys years ago and after moving on I realized that while at the time they seemed like ok preamps, I had put up with so much crap from this piece of gear. Ok so first thing, this isn't a real "tube" mic preamplifier. It's a solid state preamp that is run through a tube for effect. So it's basically a plain old preamp with a built in "tube warmth" plugin. Next, this thing is noisy. Like really noisy. Swapping out the tubes doesn't really help. It didn't shape the sound in any meaningful way either because like I mentioned, this thing isn't powered by tubes. The preamps are pretty inconsistent. They sound kind of different from each other. Same settings, input/output but one sounds smoother than the other and may or may not be noisier than the other. After a couple of years, I started having problems with the phantom power. It either wasn't working or would be really noisy. Sometimes turning it off and on again would help. Sometimes. The tube settings dial is hit or miss. It will either sound decent and usable, or like garbage. I'd regularly use the keyboard setting for vocal or vice versa. You just never knew. So even with all that, these preamps saw regular use. I was able to finagle a decent sound for vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar. Sometimes bass if it wasn't too noisy. Knowing what I know now, I'd honestly consider getting a REAL tube preamp instead of this. Don't go for the bells and whistles of "tube settings." A decent preamp should stand on its own. This one does not.

Es lo que buscábamos y tal cual en las especificaciones.

Prodotto spettacolare Suono eccezionale Consigliatissimo

Compact, gr eat signal path. Definitely an important addition to my home studio. I don’t have to watch the volume meters on my computer half as much. I love its self levelling OPL VU Protectioni. Takes the worry out of peaking into the Red on the inputs path. Great piece of kit by A R T. AS ALWAYS.

Excelente el preamp no hay duda, inclusive voy a compro otro igual, muy buena calidad… El envío fue muy rápido antes d la fecha acordada…