ART Pro MPA Mic Pre opinions

I posted this in the Gear forum as well. A friend of mine is selling an ART Pro MPA for $250. Anyone use one before, and is it any good for $250?

http://www.kellyindustries.com/microphones/art_pro_mpa.html

I purchased one on Evilbay after reading a few threads in recording.org about it. It seems a lot of the lower-priced ART gear gets knocked as being not very high performance or "seriouis" gear (more consumer than pro).

Apparently the Art Pro MPA (discontinued) and ART Pro VLA (compressor) do try to notch up the performance a bit. The pre has been replaced by the ART MPA Gold and ART Digital MPA. As far as I know the VLA is still a current piece.

The pre is characterized as having good colour and pretty good detail and air for its price with good construction quality. There are still those who say it's not "pro", but if you can pick one up for $200 - $250 used and it's 75% of a megabuck preamp then you're good to go. To me, I know I'm not going to spend $1,500 on a mic pre any time soon, so it was a no-brainer. It's supposed to respond well to premium tube upgrades. When I have a chance to play with it, I'll post some findings. As I only have one mic right now (a Rode NT1) I'm going to use one channel and output to my Focusrite TrakMaster to take advantage of its line-in and compressor. Plus I have an A/D card also to go via SP/DIF to my Edirol DA-2496. Hopefully this will give me a few different options and colours to work with. Of course, it then goes to SONAR LE.

The one current ART piece that combines the circuitry of the Pro MPA and VLA into one channel strip with EQ is the ART Pro Channel. If you're only tracking one instrument / voice at a time, it's also a consideration.

Cheers,

I got JJ's ECC83 in My Art pres ( MP3 Studio ) and I'll never go back
They may be consumer equipment but they rock to my ears
and they dont take up rack space

I kept a 12AT7 in channel 1 and the 12AX7 in channel 2 that way I can select which sounds best for the each situation. I A/B'd an MXL V69 in both channels (which tends to be a little dark to begin with) and liked the sound of both but the little extra sizzle with the 12AX7 seemed to fit that mic and my voice a little better. My GT-55 (bright mic) sounds a lot better with the T7. I have to use the +20db pad even with the X7 with the gain knob at 11:00 to get mid way into the yellow. Output knob is around 1:00. Thanks for your advise, Rain0707 in the Sonar forum. You helped me make the desicion to buy the MPA and I am glad I did! I love it!