Recording - March 2015 - 37

main see-saw EQ, and external sidechain
control via the Option port of an API
enclosure or the Omniport on a Radial
Workhorse 500 Series enclosure (my
trusty testbed for this review, along with
an API 8-slot lunchbox®).
Last up is an output knob (like a fader
on a mixer) with a throw from muted to
full-on, and a 6-stage LED style meter with
markings of -20 dB to +20 dB. Of course
this is an analog scale; I found the meter's
setting of +20 dB close to my DAW's output of digital zero.
Sound and use
Sonically the MPA575 has a very clean
and natural sound with a hint of constrained
transformer weight. This gives it just a bit of
rounding, warmth, and punch when compared to a Millennia Media or Grace
Design "straight wire with gain"-style preamp. I use those descriptives gently, as this
is still a very character-neutral preamp.
Compared to other 500 Series preamps
in my collection, I found the MPA575 to lie
tonally between the Great River MP500NV
(reviewed October 2011) and the Chandler
Little Devil (July 2012)-nice company to
keep! Thanks to its 70 dB of gain, which is
in the range offered by products such as
Millennia Media's HV preamps (most
recently reviewed July 2013) and AEA's
RPQ 500 (August 2012), it offers plenty of

gain for use with ribbons and dynamics of
all sorts. Its self-noise only becomes apparent in the last 10% of its input range.
The EQ section is simple yet very powerful, yielding deep thick pillowy lows or ultra
bright highs when set to extremes. I liked it
best set at one to three steps in either direction for quick and effective tone shaping.
The highpass filter is really nice; it has a
subtlety about it that sounds full and natural
even at extreme settings, only less boomy.
The compressor was the trickiest of the
three sections; a little goes a long way.
On instruments like acoustic guitar and
the like, I found threshold settings of no
less than +5 to +7 dB to be good for gentle control. On vocals, -2 dB worked best
for smoothing out transients while still
sounding natural both on male and
female voices. Digging in deeper can
induce a standard pumping effect and
even an odd gated attack and release if
set to extremes. The compressor is a bit
touchy and very source-dependent; it will
take a bit of time and finesse to find your
favorite uses when tracking.
Line level?
My only real disappointment with the
MPA575 is that it as it comes out of the
box, it really is more of a tracking and
input device; there is no easily accessible
line level setting for use as an inline EQ

and compressor during mixdown. I could
get it to work if I kept the input at 10 dB
gain and attenuated the send level in my
DAW, but to actually bypass the mic preamp gain circuit requires opening the unit
and flipping a DIP switch. Eric Ingram
informs us that future production runs will
have this switch externally accessible.
In a mix the see-saw EQ and highpass filter come in quite handy, but the compressor
is very easy to push into clipping and distortion. In a mix, the MPA575 exhibits a bit
of Jekyll-and-Hyde personality; it can
become a cool gritty vibe box for use on a
mono drum room mic or on bass guitar.
Not its intended use, I know... but still cool.
Conclusions
The MPA575's street price is completely in line with that of other high-end boutique 500 Series wares. In fact, even if all
you got was a the ultra clean, loud, and
great sounding preamp with the impedance switching and high pass filter, this
would be a strong competitor for the
money, but the EQ and dynamics features
put it nicely over the top.
Price: $1200 ($975 street); with output
transformer, $1350 ($1100 street)
More from: Ingram Engineering,
www.ingramengineering.net

http://www.ingramengineering.net http://www.CRAS.EDU http://www.CRAS.EDU http://www.audiorecordingschool.com/consumer.html

Recording - March 2015

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