SM Pro Audio PR8 Preamp User Reviews at zZounds

"Gets the job done." submitted December 6, 2007

By a customer from myfinalbreath.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Active Musician, and Recording Engineer

Music Style: All

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Sound: I own the older model, the one where the outputs are consumer based -10dB, although the one listed on this site is now a more professional +4dB on the output. Anyways, the sound is great and extremely clear without needing to hardly push the preamp at all. No noise floor is audible. Feature: Gets the basics done, plug a mic in, turn up the gain, switch on phantom power if need be... then plug it into your interface. Having a mic/line combined input and a pad switch would've been nice. Yet the price would've been much higher. Ease of Use: Extremely easy to use, as long as you understand the xlr's are inputs and the 1/4" on the back are the outputs... then you're good to go. Quality: Seems to be made extremely well, and me being the third owner of this unit, that can tell you how durable it can be. Value: A great value for the item at new cost. Manufacturer Support: Never needed support, if it breaks, honestly it's so cost effective I'll use purchase another one. And maybe get around to fixing the first... if the ever be the case. The Wow Factor: Shouldn't matter about it's "sex appeal" it just sitting in a rack with cables connected to it. Overall: Overall it's a great unit, especially for those looks to add a more mics to their digi interfaces such as the digi001, etc. Which only supply a limited amount of actual mic inputs.

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"Awesome product for the money" submitted November 28, 2005

By a customer from hotmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Active musician

Music Style: Rock, blues, & jazz

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Sound: It sounds neutral, and it's very quiet. I suspect others who have issues with noise are using poorly shielded or defective cables or mics. With my setup, it's very quiet. If you're looking for a mic preamp to give you that vintage tube sound, this ain't it. This unit does one thing only: It amplifies the original mic signal and sends it to the recorder. And it does it very well. If you want a vintage mic or tube emulation, you'll need a processor. Feature: It's got what it needs. Each channel has an XLR jack, a gain knob, and a phantom power switch. It would be nice to have a 1/4" line input & pad switch on each channel, but then again it wouldn't be only 99 bucks with the added features. Quality: Made very well with good quality parts. It's amazing what you can get for a hundred bucks these days. Value: Absolutely the best value in an 8-channel mic preamp. Manufacturer Support: I'm rating this in the middle of the scale since I have never had to deal with the company. It's a reliable unit and I've never needed support. The Wow Factor: Is sex appeal important in a mic preamp? If color is a big deal for you in a piece of studio gear, then your priorites are screwed up. I buy gear that's built well and does the job. And this one fits the bill perfectly. Overall: I plan on keeping this unit 'til it blows up. And I'd definately buy another one. I've made many successful recordings using this preamp with my TASCAM 238 8-track recorder, digital DAW, Alesis effects & compressor, and BiAmp mixing console. There are a lot of preconceived notions about how good or bad a product will perform based on the brand name slapped on it. I've used my share of Soundcraft, Mackie, Klark-Teknik, dbx, and other high-end brands of mixers, processors, and the like over the years. Much of the gear produced today by companies like Behringer and SMPro perform much like the big boys (& sometimes even better) but don't cost the big bucks. Good equipment is important to a good recording. Ability and skill are even more important.

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"Go get one! You need it!" submitted June 11, 2004

By a customer from cowboy.net

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Quality

Value

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The Wow Factor

Music Style: My Client;'s style is my style!

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VERIFIED BUYER

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Sound: The sound is decent overall, very quiet. I bought two of these when the price dropped to $99. I have had them now for 6+ months. I found the top end to be rolled off a bit, but its still very usable. I have made some simple mods to one unit (only removing components) and it increased the bandwidth considerably. Changed opamps in the other unit and it sounds great!! Maybe its not a TRUE, but its $99!! Feature: It has gain and phantom PER channel. This is a nice feature rather than having global phantom. Otherwise, what do you need? Quality: Okay, the externals are very clean and nice. The internals aren't so pretty, but its EIGHT mic pres for $99! I modified one of mine and did some soldering and desoldering on the circuit board. Its a single sided PCB, but I didn't lift any traces with the iron, so that's a sign that they used decent circuit board material. The opamps are not 4580, as stated in the manual, they are 4558. They can easily be modified to get wider bandwidth if you gotta have it. Value: It doesn't get much better than this...8 pres for $99. They are pretty quiet and work great in my home studio. Manufacturer Support: I sent the company an email regarding the discrepancy about the opamps. They sent a reply pretty quickly and said they'd change the manual. I have had some other conversations with them about other products and they have been very helpful with info. The Wow Factor: This is a practical addition to my setup. I have a MOTU 1224 with 8 ins and I needed some mic pres. This would also be a great addition to a Digi 01 or 02 etc. to give some more mic inputs on the other channels. Overall: This thing suits my purposes very well. For the price, you cannot beat it! To see some mods go to www.groupdiy.com and do a search!

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"This this is as sexy as a friggin fly!" submitted December 6, 2003

By a customer from yahoo.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Music Style: Crap and Roll

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Sound: It sounds ok. Not to clean, though. I have only used it in a live recording environment. It is good enough for demos, or ghost tracks if you are totally broke. Feature: It has a gain and a phantom switch on each channel. Pretty simple. Quality: It is as cheap as they come. I have had the best results on non condensor or mics that do not require phantom power. Value: I paid $199 9 months ago when the msrp was $299. It totally blows for me that they have such a price drop. I never had liked NADY products, this looks identical to the NADY, so it is pretty bottom of the line. Manufacturer Support: The first one I had did not work properly on channel #3. I returned it to the retailer and got a new one about 4 months ago and so far so good. The Wow Factor: This thing has the sex appeal of a friggin fly. Overall: I will probably use this until I get my DDX3216 in 2004. Then I guess I will have to sell it for much less than what I paid for it. Thanks SMPRO for screwwing us guys that paid your first retail price of $199.

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"More Hiss Than A Pit Of Vipers" submitted February 12, 2005

By a customer from yahoo.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Recording Engineer

Music Style: All types

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Sound: This is the biggest piece of crap I have ever owned!!!! There is more hiss than a pit of vipers. Try arming 8 tracks in a ProTools session routed from a PR8. You will think you have a short somewhere. Mute out all 8 channels one at a time and you'll eventually reach complete silence. Feature: 8 mic pres & independent 48v on each channel. Balanced ins and outs(suposedly) Quality: Very loud cicuitry. Value: This product is not worth anywhere close to retail. Manufacturer Support: No support available by phone The Wow Factor: It's like a puke blue/green color. Black or red would be better. Overall: The only person I would reccomend this product to would be someone who loves to solder wants a cheap piece of gear to experiment with.

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SM Pro Audio PR8 8-Channel Microphone Preamp

User Ratings

"Gets the job done." submitted December 6, 2007

"Awesome product for the money" submitted November 28, 2005

"Go get one! You need it!" submitted June 11, 2004

"This this is as sexy as a friggin fly!" submitted December 6, 2003

"More Hiss Than A Pit Of Vipers" submitted February 12, 2005