I've decided to keep the Biz Mk mic pres that Purple was kind enough to loan me to try out. It was a fairly good tactic, I have to admit. "Hey, Chris is thinking of getting some SSL mic pres. Huh. Well, let's send him a couple of our much more expensive ones, and get him liking them, and he'll whip out the ol' credit card. It'll be awesome." Well, it worked. I ain't sending these lil' guys back because they're pwncakes covered in awesome sauce, plain and simple. This is the first mic pre I've met that had such a broad range of tonal possibility you could almost consider it an effect rather than an input. The reasons for this are various. First off, this bad boy has two op-amps instead of just one like virtually every other 500-series pre-amp. (If you're nubsauce, the discrete op-amp, the heart of a class-A mic pre, is the part that actually does the "amp" in "preamp.") That's not such a big deal, because only one is used normally. But whack that "DUAL" button and it's a whole different ball game, as the input is split and sent to both op-amps, resulting in the most monster-ass gain you're gonna find in a 500-sized cart. They say 75dB, and I have no reason to doubt that, although I didn't check it directly. Obviously, in use as a D.I., it's going to bypass the input iron, so you can halve that number for front-panel work. The next fun bit is that it has a level fader; what this means is that you can really crank the gain, and then pull the level down with the fader, resulting in some nice fuzzy op-amp distortion that makes everything nice and juicy. Some caveats apply; I thought this would sound good on bass, but it makes the bass a little too knocky for my taste. It sounded fantastic on drums direct from the MachineDrum, and I was able to get a really nice heavy rock vocal sound, and D.I. guitar (as in "meant for an amp simulator") sounded better. As in "not completely shitty." It's no secret that I find amp simulators to be a ridiculous waste of everybody's time, and it's not like some magic box is gonna change the fact that they just sound like shit, each and every one. In normal (read: without the gain jacked to the ceiling) use, it actually makes a really nice synth and bass D.I.; my MKS80 was never very happy about the various mic pres I have, and I usually just took its balanced out straight in to the Rosetta, but it definitely likes this pre; so did the Source and the Crumar Performer I also jacked through it, and if you don't kill the gain, it makes a good bass D.I., although I would, as per usual, recommend an Avalon in that application. I didn't have occasion to try it on real drums or amped guitar yet, but I get the feeling that is this pre-amp's happy place. I still stand by my comments in my initial post, that it has the flavor of other American class-A designs (512C, et al) but it has a much broader palette. Strong "buy" recommendation from me. (Note: I feel it is important to point out that I received no special consideration whatsoever from Purple, either in the initial loan or for this post. I paid the price that is listed on the website, and in order to get the loan I put down my credit card number as earnest. Just so we're clear on all that. I only whore myself out for real cashy money, not gear.)

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