Microphones and preamps are the "chicken and egg" of audio. Want to start a discussion among audio folk? Ask whether mics or preamps are more important. Later in this article, I speak with George Massenburg and John Hardy to get their take on transformer and transformerless preamps and solid state versus tubes. They are the main course. But before we get to them, I have a few appetizers and a salad.

Stronger Chains

For the entry-level person, getting better sound can be very frustrating. You may not be able to hear how great that new mic sounds until you get a better preamp. Even then, if your mix bus or monitor section is the weakest link, the improvement won’t get to your ears. Even the cable between the microphone and preamp can make a difference.

We were pained to find this out a number of years ago when comparing a Gefell mic with a Neumann U 87 and AKG C414. In one studio, we got predictably different frequency responses, depending on whether we used the “house” Belden cable, Gotham GAC-3 or EMT 2022. When we tried a similar test in another studio, the results were not so dramatic.

Why? Probably impedance differences. The first studio had a built-in wall panel and snake. The second didn’t. Was it the way the mics and snake interacted or the way the snake and the first studio’s API console interacted, or both? The first studio used API console mic preamps, the second studio only had an original issue Mackie 1604. Maybe the Mackie wasn’t open enough to pass the differences.

The test instruments: your voice and this.

DIY Testing `Want a simple way to test how responsive your chain is to improvement? Listen to a humble SM58 through your existing chain and then, using the same microphone cable, plug the SM58 into your prospective new preamp and come in at line level to your mixer. If you can't hear a world of difference, the prospective preamp isn't that much of an improvement or -- and this is a BIG or -- something else in the chain is eating up the improvement.

To Tube or Not to Tube

Tube circuits are sometimes elevated into mythological status, primarily because they were all we had before solid state came along. The truth is, a good solid-state preamp sounds much better than a poorly designed tube preamp. A good tube preamp sounds better than a poorly designed solid-state preamp. It's a pretty simple quality issue.