ART TPS II Reviews

Great preamp!

Also good for GL 5 string bass and acoustic guitar

Very Good!

The quality is excellent! The price is excellent! If you want a clean and powerful voice, you have to buy this!!!

Great piece of gear

Having valves is always nice, so having 2 channels for this price is nice. I don't find the presets so useful, but it's cool to have different options as a start point to find your sound.

Good mic preamp

Using it in my home studio with the presets as pre EQ/comp for mics on amps, vocals etc.

Can add more than enough gain for all kind of mics, my previous solution did not enough oomph for some dynamic mics.

For it's price there is really nothing I don't like about the ART TPS II.

Excellent for the money

For the money involved an excellent preamplifier for voice and middle frequencies in general, the sound can be tweaked , but the best results for all around mix can be found in the neutral setting. Remember to replace the inside tube with a higher quality one if you want the unit to show what is capable of. Very nice preamplifier for middle and higher frequencies, round sweet , tube sound.

Excellent for voice , guitars , synths whatever.. For Bass try a solid state or a transformer preamplifier. For all the rest for the money involved is a trully excellent unit

A surprisingly high quality product at this price with fine presets.

Great character PreAmp

Hi all,

I have been using this pre in my studio for quite a few years now and even though I have far more expensive Pre's I still use the TPS II .

If you are looking for a pristine sound you may not get that but I love to use the OPL limiting to get harmonics and a bit of drive on my top and bottom snare.

I also find it warm and present on acoustic guitars.

The only issue I have had with it is that the lights over the meters dies last year. Other than that it still works a treat and is well worth stepping through presets for interesting sounds.

Bought it 2 years ago as a mic preamp and an optional mastering effect.

It's ok for the price range, I guess...

Too much noise for my taste, maybe thats just the case with my unit, otherwise ok.

Mirrored controls on the front pannel are a bit confusing.

Would recommed it to begginers and semi pros.

ART gear is definitely budget and bedroom studio / producers friendly.

A Swiss army knife for home recording

I must say that for home recording this preamp is excellent as it provides one with so many different settings. It is true however that one should not expect a genuine tube sound or pristine mic preamp sound as it is clear that this is a low budget device. That does not mean that it sounds bad. No. The preamps are decent.

The metering is very clear and the build quality is actually surprisingly good for the price. The unit feels very strudy! The knobs have a nice feel to them and feel expensive. It's also good for line-level sources, like synths to add a bit of different flavor to the sound, some gritt.

Tube Pre - I love it BUT...

I love everything about this unit, except one thing... the fact that the controls are mirrored! the Left channel is literally opposite to the right - which is so confusing in the heat of a session! the amount of times I have 'matched' the channels settings only to find that I haven't actually, because it's back to front!

however the sound of this unit is awesome - I have read lots on changing the tubes to a more expensive kind - though I have never felt the need as it is great as is!

Perfect for pumping final mixes through too!

I am very pleased with the built in limiter too - you really can squash the life out of things if you want to.

Good for the money

Good sound quality - the plethora of pre-sets are useful, but I often find myself using the settings for different applications than they're apparent intention - eg, vocal setting for a piano recording. That's always the case I find.

I don't like the mirror set up on each channel - that did take me a while to programme into myself. I also wish it had a balanced jack out for each channel.

But for the money, it adds warmth, or the subtlest drive to vocals and generally a bit of air to direct input recording. Build quality appears good, the pots and displays all feel solid and the unit itself is sturdy. A nice little addition for a home project studio.