Sounds fairly transparent, and input sensitivity was consistant throughout the 4 balanced XLR inputs.

Standard features inlude XLR balanced inputs, and 48V phantom power. This unit has unbalanced outputs though, but if you are just making short-runs (to your DAW), you should be comfortable using the PR-4.

Very sturdy case. All metal construction. Could use a set of rack-mount "ears" to make it a road unit.

For the money, every budding engineer should have one.

Have not had to contact SMPro Audio for support.

It's not sexy at all, and it shouldn't be. It's basic audio gear. But it does have a pretty green light for power indication, and a green "clip" led on each channel.

Audio Engineer

Open

The sound on this is fine, I had no real issues with it while it was functioning. Unfortunately it rarely functioned without much trouble, and now doesn't function at all.

There are no accessories. Just the preamp.

I had to mess with the cables extensively before every recording in order to get the device to power on. This is a huge pain and a device this defective never should be marketed. However, once the device was powered on, it was simple enough to use it.

This is one of the cheapest and shoddiest devices I've purchased. It's not like a cheap guitar, where the shortcuts and cheap materials are understandable and don't prevent it from functioning properly. This thing is simply made poorly, with no quality control from SM audio. The cables are shoddy and don't even fit together correctly, so you have to be careful to never bump the power brick or the cord will come right out of it. And the power cable connection on the preamp itself, though it fits with the power cable fine it simply doesn't work right. Pressure must be applied on the cable in just the right way in order to get the device to power on. And it no longer even does that anymore, no matter the amount of tweaking or trying. The preamp has ceased to be.

The price is great for the performance, but taking the total lack of quality control into account, this product is simply not worth gambling your money on. Buy something more reliable.

The preamp isn't ugly or sexy. It just...is. It's a fine addition to the setup, aesthetically.

Active Musician

Rock, Metal, Classical, Experimental

A good solid state preamp should be quiet, and this one is. Turn the gains up to max, then back them off until you are not clipping. The result is a very quiet pre-amp.

For what it is designed to do, the features are great. If you need phantom power, and want to boost your xlr mic input to line level 1/4" unbalanced output, this unit will do it nicely. Won't color the sound like a tube amp, it's just a crisp, clear signal.

so far so good

Amazing deal for 4 quiet solid state pmic preamps with phantom power.

Looks nice and is very compact.