Presonus TubePre v2 Tube Preamplifier DI Box

In all SS mode (zero tube drive) this is a very "transparent" preamp. The treble is "airy" for lack of a better word, with no hint of harshness. It captures the detail and sounds good on just about anything if a neutral response is what you want.On the other hand I was pleasantly surprised by the tube drive. I guess I wasn't expecting much, but it sounds good on some sources. Monophonic instruments in particular like vocals seem to benefit the most, probably due to the lack of intermodulation distortion. The tube drive can add texture to a singer with a "dull" voice. It tried it with good results on an acoustic guitar. As the drive is turned up not only are low order harmonics added but the lower treble region is slightly boosted for more increased presence. In short the tube drive brightens the sound and adds warmth (in the form of soft distortion) at the same time. On heavy settings it's possible to see the tube drive compressing one side (pos or neg) of the signal while preserving the other side, typical of the distortion characteristic of a single triode.The phase button is peculiar. Pressing the phase button "in" adds bass and warmth to the signal. Leaving it out produces a flatter, less colored response but with less bass.Overall there is 80dB of gain and it's not noisy. It should work with a ribbon mic. Using the phase button and the tube drive along with different gain settings yields a slightly different response and sound. This preamp can sound like many different preamps.There is one comment I would like to make. If you don't have a really good mic don't waste your money on a super expensive preamp. I can hear the difference between a $5000 preamp, a $900 preamp, a $100 preamp, and a $30 preamp. But, MOST PEOPLE would not be able to tell which sounds better, or perhaps I should say, most people will not appreciate the difference between the $29.99 preamp and the $5000 (take your pick of brands) preamp (barring use of compressors or other effects). Again, I can hear the difference, BUT, if I put a $30 compressor in the hands of a professional producer and he was forced to use it to track an entire album I guarantee that the album would sound good. The ART is a sterile amplifier that is quiet and accurate until pushed in which case it also has a tube that will compress and distort.I think the PreSonus has the best sound quality/price ratio of any preamp. For a very low price you get a preamp that is virtually indistinguishable from very expensive preamps costing over 10 times more. The tube drive is a bonus as far as I'm concerned, but I'm certain that I will be using it on tracks after trying it and discovering it actually works well.

What a difference this little preamp makes to my piano playing! I just plugged it into my setup, and suddenly, my piano has this gorgeous, warm presence that makes me want to play for hours. It's like wrapping your ears in a cozy blanket—the notes feel more affluent and alive.The tube adds a subtle sweetness that's hard to describe, but you'll notice it in the midrange, especially. It is not overcooked or artificial—just that natural, pleasing warmth that tubes are famous for. I get lost in the sound, especially during slower pieces, when you can hear the harmonics bloom.I have it in the signal chain between my piano and the monitor station, which feeds into the HP4 headphone amp driving my Sennheiser HD650s. This combination lets you hear all the nuances the tube preamp brings to the sound, and the HD650s' natural warmth beautifully complements the tube's character.

The soft tube distortion really spices up such tracks. And the 60 cycle hum filter honestly works better than any other such gadget that I own. My studio is in my basement, which means really loud 60 cycle hum from our furnace/or air conditioner. It absolutely slays the hum to the point it is barely noticable. This was an unexpected and awesome surprise!Nice heavy duty metal case, not plastic. Most importantly my instrument tracks really sound much cleaner and clearer with this preamp. It works exactly the way one would expect.Imho: This is a best buy for under $200. No problems, really good quality for the price I paid. No regrets.

I've owned the v2 for about a month; I like its compactness. I own the older Bluetube two-microphone model, but I bought this one as a back-up. One of the mic channels failed on the Bluetube, and I didn't want to be caught short-handed if the other channel should fail as well. I've noticed that on both the Bluetube model and the v2, the VU meter's light has dimmed almost to nothing, making it impossible to read the numbers without very close inspection. On both models this dimming VU meter issue began within a couple of weeks. It hasn't affected the functionality of the devices, but it would be nice if the manufacturer had put in a simple LED that could last almost forever.At any rate the tube drive is why I bought this item, it on that level it really makes a difference in the sound. I only record audio books, so I really don't need much anyway--just a subtle touch to accentuate the natural bass in my voice, and to give it some "edgy-ness."

I went ahead and tried this and I think it sounds nice and has brighter sound that raises little more than just a transformer and yet it's nice. I don't like running it with the "Operating Level Down" because it uses more power and can buzz some and it is a tube preamp with the drive and the drive is nice and yet with much drive I don't like very much. Yet with the "Operating Level Up" and by that I mean the +4 dBu level it requires just less than half the gain and that has a nice clean sound with 1/4 level of the tube. Which is nice about it because it should last a very long time like that and so should the tube. I'd recommend those settings on it also because it might even save power because it does say it can draw quite a bit of power. If just using a mixer board you would have turn the gain up more on the mixer in order to do something similar as raising the "Operating Level" that some compressors have from the -10dBV to the +4dBU setting. I don't get why I would want to even mess around with changing the tubes with the drive amount I am using and the amount of gain and it is using lower power by utilizing the "Operating Level" of the other device and I am using it for a vocal preamp as opposed to a guitar preamp which might want some different sounds. Thus once again with 1/4 or less tube and just less than 1/2 gain it sounds pretty good. Thank you.