I own one of these units.
Here's a song I did with it that I think really shows what it can do. Everything is run through it except the strings and drums.
Blue Shadow's On The Trail Pro's: I consider this a 'pro' because of the excellent service .... the first unit I received blew a tube on one of the channels. The problem was exactly what Rain described in his Amp thread. They shipped me a replacement unit and let me keep mine until the new one showed up because one channel was still usable. I asked if they would just ship me a tube but they couldn't for some reason. I forget what they said.
The tubes are very easy to replace in both units. The first thing I did when I got them was take the cabinets off and make sure everything was seated properly. They are built
really well on the inside.
Another
really nice thing about this mic pre is the variable input impedance knob. I have a 30+ year old high end Peavey mic that I was an inch away from throwing out because it sounded like garbage directly through my Fast Track Ultra and any other audio interface I ran it through. Just for the heck of it, I hooked it up to the MPA II and tweaked the input impedance and it cleared up immediately. It sounded every bit as good as my brand new Blue Bluebird mic. AAMOF, if i would have known the input impedance was going to make that much of a difference, I never would have spent the $300 on the Bluebird mic.
Cons: 1. Those blue meters look cool for a little while, but I prefer the typical yellowish back lit ones. Also, the LED's the chose to light up the buttons are kind of cheesy looking. Bright white. If you are one of those people that like a certain look to your studio, this unit will clash with everything else.
2. Make sure you burn it in really good for a few days in case there is a bad tube. I've read a few reports of bad tubes in these units, but once they were replaced, they ran like a dream. I've also read that you can upgrade the tubes in these and make them sound like a much more expensive unit.
Other thoughts: Later on I paired it with the an
ART Pro-VLA II Tube Compressor and I think it's a killer combination. I can get that nice saturated sound right on down to crystal clear. It really does work well on bass like you've read. All of my bass parts are run through the MPA and VLA now.
I can't compare it to any other low/mid range tube pre's and comp's because this is the first units I've ever owned. I can tell you there is a night and day difference from going DI with my Fast Track Ultra and going through these two units first. I have zero regrets of buying either one of these units.
I stacked the MPA and VLA on my desk and sat my monitor on top of them. I used short, high quality cables.
It really is a stupid deal and you're crazy if you don't cash in on it ... especially if you're just using the DI's on your sound card right now with no other signal path.
BTW ... this Reference Series has been around a while, but it's hard to find. It's usually out of stock and has to be special ordered. I've had mine for a couple of years now.