FMR Audio RNP 8380 4-stars Reviews

small, but good

I recently decided it was time to upgrade from the built in preamps in my Focusrite Sapphire to a 'real' external preamp. My budget was about 600 EUR. Afer a LOT of online research, I narrowed my options down to 6 preamps, in roughly the same price range. The preamps were:

ART Pro MPA II

Warm Audio TB12 Tone Beast

Black Lion Audio B173 Preamp

FMR Audio RNP 8380

Warm Audio WA73

Focusrite ISA One Analog

As I will be using the preamp mostly for vocals and bass, I tested both those signals.

I plugged my Ibanez 600 in passive mode into my BSS DI, into the preamp. For vocals, I hooked up my SM7B straight into the preamp, into Logic X. The results:

The FMR Audio RNP8380 is a dual channel preamp in a super small case (especially compared to the others on this list). It sounded great on vocals, with a lot of smooth, round gain. On bass I felt it lacking, clipping more easily, and sounding dull. Also, it doesn't have a lot of options. But it plays very well with an SM7B.

This two-channel microphone preamp is very good value for money, the sound is clean and neutral (though the preamp gets noisier with highest gain settings, but that much amplification is rarely needed). The features are basic, but sufficient (phase invert, phantom, DI input, FX insert). This is a great choice for a first external preamp. The sound quality is considerably better than in the preamps found in low and mid-level usb and firewire audio interfaces. In my unit the gain knobs are little wobbly, but this does not affect operation.

Beautiful transparent sound

I have owned this 2-channel pre-amp for just over a couple of months, and already have used it on vocals for several recordings. It is transparent, clean and sounds lovely both with a Shure SM7 & a Neumann TLM-103.

There are lots of similar products out there in terms of price and sound quality but I don't think I'll find another pre-amp with better sound and cost per channel.

Like the other FMR products, the 1/3 rack space is really useful for the smaller studio. If anything, clearer output metering would be useful but that is what I use my interface metering for.