[suprstar]

It's an entry level pre, cheap, marketable cuz of the 'tube'. But the tube barely glows at all, it's a starved plate design which means it's running at far lower than optimal voltage. There's a lot better pres out there, but this one is decent for the price. I think tolerances must be loose in manufacturing, cuz a lotta ppl complain about it being super-noisy, while some ppl say it sounds great. I also have a DMP3 which is waaaay better, so I really only use the tube mp as a bass DI now.

Quality - 5 - It sounds ok, w a r m s up your tone a little, sounds better than my mixer pres.. I can crank my gain/vol up to almost max and there's a little hiss but not bad, but it'd add up if you used it on a lot of tracks.

Reliability - 8 - I've never had a single problem with mine, but I've heard a few complaints.. It feels nice and solid, nice heavy metal case.

Overall - 6 - It's better than nothing. If you only have $40 and not too high of an expectation, get it.