OVERALL it’s a ok compressor, restaurants near lauderdale by the sea fl good for tracking if used correctly. For 300$ or even less its a great piece of gear, useful, but not irreplaceable. The PRO VLA II starts to show it’s low endness when used on a mix bus.

• I said “Hmmmm, I guess I will take a chance with ART.”
• Creating systems that integrate seamlessly into the working environment takes skill and experience.
• Switchable valve voltage and variable drive provide a range of useful ‘warmth’ options.
• Best Budget Phono Preamp of 2022 “Perhaps its most exciting feature is a low-end roll-off switch that cuts some of the boominess from older distorted vinyl, or a turntable’s drive rumble, without cutting much out of the mix.”
• The Phono preamp is self-contained in an extruded enclosure and is intended for sustained professional usage.
• So, for about $850 all in, I have an amazing stereo opto tube compressor that I will never want to part with.
• I am using tubes from JJ Electronics and they are amazing!!!

Channel 5 has a high-impedance instrument jack input with a switchable guitar speaker simulator. To save space, the channel level controls are on rotary pots rather than faders but, with so few channels to control, that’s no hardship. LED peak-clip indicators are fitted to all but the stereo channel.

Pro Audio Art

With a goal of redefining what performance means, all while keeping prices low for their customers, ART has created some of the most sought after pro audio equipment out there. By innovatively focusing on design to ensure everything is as efficient as possible. From power amps to signal processors to mixers, no matter what you need to enhance your recording experience chances are you’ll find it in this section. I have worked in film and recording studios and use lots of Pro Gear. That being said I have tried a few ART products, a small tube pre amp, some multi effects, etc.

Product Specs

Like much mid and economy priced tube gear, the stock tubes are rather plain-jane. There is much to be gained by swapping tubes with your favourite flavour. If I was looking for a phono amp today I think I’d prefer one that offers a few choices of capacitance for the MM input. When I have a new piece of gear in my hands for review I always ask myself some questions.

Art Dti Dual Transformer

Bill Cheney and Jim Romney are the men responsible for keeping the amazing legacy of Spectra Sonics, a legendary, if criminally unheralded, pro-audio company alive. Valve circuity can be switched to different input channels. If you don’t need the valves there’s no shortage of small mixers out there, from the likes of Behringer, Mackie, Soundcraft, Yamaha and Allen & Heath, to name but a few. But I haven’t come across anything else at this price that includes anything like this device’s valve stage.

Built-in low-noise RIAA phono pre-amp circuit with low cut filters guarantees pristine audio capture. However, the sample rate is limited to 44.1kHz or 48kHz, and the resolution is only 16-bit. This isn’t a problem if you record as hot as you can without clipping, but it isn’t as forgiving as 24-bit encoding.

The technical spec looks suitably impressive on paper, with a frequency response extending from 15Hz to 48kHz (+0, ‑1dB) when the valve anode‑voltage is set to normal. An equivalent input noise for the mic input is quoted as ‑129dBu A‑weighted, translating to a dynamic range of better than 110dB, again A‑weighted. Both mic inputs can accommodate signal levels of up to +10dBu before clipping, whereas the maximum instrument level is +17dBu (800kΩ impedance).

Tubelink2 Limiter

With it tickling the yellow I knew I had some headroom before things would get a little out of control. With respect to channel balance correction, every phono preamp should have one IMO. In my Muffsy kit phono preamp there is an option using different gain using an internal dip switch. The component values can be easily changed to adjust gain in ≈0.5 dB steps for each channel. So if you don’t need the orignal gain options there is a possibility to adapt gain setting for cartridge balance corrections between 0.5-2 dB. I wish that this would be a standard feature of every phono preamp.