Iv owned a number of pre-amps in my past 25 years in this hobby whilst there are tons of good sounding pre-amps out there, I always came back to an Atma-Sphere Pre-amp eventually after owing the older modes selling them off than buying new version later on after few years of bad experiences with another high endbrands, I have both MP-1 and MP-3 fully loaded.
When i sold of my older MP-1 i kinda regretted it in the end after trying so many other high-end brands such as VAC, VTL, MC, ARC, ML, Asthetix, few others custom made ones too.
A Fully Loaded MP-3 with the Volume upgrade etc etc, is not far behind the standard MP-1.
VACs are another good brand it's coloured for sure pleasant-sounding but i got very bored of it. i don't seem to get the same feeling with the Atma-Sphere gear. I get that toe-tapping feeling the speed, dynamics, transparency all almost just sounds you're being transported to a live event. They are not harsh sounding nor coloured its very hard to describe the sound especially when you use them on OTL Amplifiers. Something magical about this setup once its setup properly.
The Problem with the MP-1 is its very sensitive pre-amp in the sense you will get all the transparency you ever want but you must use very quiet tubes. This is the only issue I have. I must be careful on the tubes purchases. Tubes which pose no noise with other pre-amps seems to have some noise on the MP-1. Apart from this minor issue i honestly think it can compete against Pre-amps costing 5-6 times more easily.
When i sold of my older MP-1 i kinda regretted it in the end after trying so many other high-end brands such as VAC, VTL, MC, ARC, ML, Asthetix, few others custom made ones too.
A Fully Loaded MP-3 with the Volume upgrade etc etc, is not far behind the standard MP-1.
VACs are another good brand it's coloured for sure pleasant-sounding but i got very bored of it. i don't seem to get the same feeling with the Atma-Sphere gear. I get that toe-tapping feeling the speed, dynamics, transparency all almost just sounds you're being transported to a live event. They are not harsh sounding nor coloured its very hard to describe the sound especially when you use them on OTL Amplifiers. Something magical about this setup once its setup properly.
The Problem with the MP-1 is its very sensitive pre-amp in the sense you will get all the transparency you ever want but you must use very quiet tubes. This is the only issue I have. I must be careful on the tubes purchases. Tubes which pose no noise with other pre-amps seems to have some noise on the MP-1. Apart from this minor issue i honestly think it can compete against Pre-amps costing 5-6 times more easily.