Behringer TUBE ULTRAGAIN MIC100 Audiophile Vacuum Tube Preamplifier with Limiter

Largely based on the reviews I read here at Amazon, I bought one of these MIC100 pre-amps to see if if would 'warm up' the sound of my hollow-body electric guitar. It does that, both on the front end (i.e., between the guitar and my amp) or the back end (between the amp's line out and a P.A.). Lately, I have been using it to warm up the sound of a low-cost mic, sometimes connected line-in to the same amp, and sometimes to a mixer or direct to a P.A. I have to say that, for me, it works great in both roles. In fact, I may purchase another MIC100, so I have one for the mic and one for the guitar. I should point out that this is for live performance. I understand that for studio work there are more expensive products that probably work better and, one assumes, have more features. For my purposes, this thing is great. I like it so much, I use it at home when I'm just playing for my own pleasure. Noise hasn't been an issue, for me. Yes, it will get a bit noisy if you max the Gain knob, but I never do that. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 gets me the quality of sound I want. The Volume control doesn't add any noticeable noise at any reasonable level - even at home, where there's minimal background din. On the advice of another reviewer, I ordered a replacement tube for it, but I haven't actually got around to replacing the OEM tube. If there's a dramatic change - for the better - when I finally do that, I'll send in a supplementary review. For now, I'm sufficiently pleased that I have no feeling of urgency about swapping out the tube. This is the third Behringer product I have purchased that has met or exceeded expectations. I see occasional comments, here and elsewhere, about their lack or reliability and/or quality control, and used to be a bit concerned about it. However, after a year and a half with my VT50FX amp (used pretty much every day), several months with the MIC100, and some time with a bought-used GM108 amp, I have no inhibitions about Behringer products. Any mass-market manufacturer is going to have the occasional deffective product get into a customer's hands. The real issue is will they treat you right when it happens. I have read that Behringer does, though I haven't had reason to explore this myself. So far, I am pleased and impressed with my Behringer gear...especially that VT50FX amp. [One exception is their guitar effects pedals. I've owned three of those (purchased, untested, by mail order); they all worked, but none did what I expected/hoped it would do. This may be more my fault than Behringer's, but once I got a Zoom Multi-effects unit, the pedals were relegated to the cupboard. These are definitely a try-before-you-buy item.]

This is my second purchase of one of these units. The people that are telling you not to buy this have obviously not taken the time to learn how to use it. Like anything new and foreign, you have to READ the instructions and take your time adjusting the controls to find your preferred "sweet spot". I love the warmth you get from the tube and the balls of power you can achieve. I always use the "Limiter" button and keep it in the green-flashing level. As soon as you see it "clipping" even a little or hear distortion, just slightly dial the gain and/or output controls back a little. This is a great product for a reasonable price. For me, Behringer never disappoints. P.S. If you're bothered by the slight hum (that really goes unnoticed in your final recording) OR you do "Spoken Word" or "A Cappella" you can upgrade to an even warmer sounding, no-noise tube. Amazon sells a nice one called "Electro Harmonix 12AX7EH". It's made in Russia, but so far I haven't come under investigation for buying it.

I'm sharing what I learned because I really wish I had known about this before spending weeks troubleshooting: TLDR; Plug this pre-amp into a battery, UPS, or some kind of power conditioner to significantly, if not completely, reduce noise and interference. When I plug into a surge strip or wall outlet, even at low volumes, I can clearly make out electrical buzzing and my local radio stations. After plugging into the battery portion of the UPS, the noise is gone. It was that simple. I don't know how much of a difference balanced and shielded cables make, but for a condenser microphone, I'd highly recommend doing everything you can to reduce noise on the input end. ************ Pros: + vacuum tube pre-amp + 48 V phantom power + reasonable price + good selection of features for this price point Cons: - No power switch? Seriously? - No filtering from the power supply The pre-amp doesn't appear to filter the power it receives from the A/C Adapter in the slightest, and the transformer in the adapter is not able to filter out certain frequencies (like radio stations). The Pre-Amp uses that power as-is to amplify the signal (I only tested this with the 48v Phantom Power). What this means, is if the circuit you are plugging into is not a 100% clean sinewave equivalent, you WILL get noise and interference coming through your audio. I wanted to give this product 3 stars for all the frustration if caused me, but it does sound quite good after figuring out the power issue. I just wish the Amazon page clearly recommended using some kind of power conditioner. Would have saved me a lot of trouble. Oh, and ffs... put a power switch on the thing. ************ My set-up (for context): I purchased this unit to use with my budget home/office setup to get better sounding audio when talking to clients, streaming, and other communications across Skype, Discord, and the like on a PC. I'm using the pre-amp with an inexpensive cardioid condenser microphone without post-processing and without a separate USB DAC or other USB-style interface. I'm using relatively high-grade shielded cables (no longer than 6ft to further reduce noise) both on the input and output ends of the device. I don't believe the sound card for my computer supports balanced audio.

I shoulda returned this, but I was moving at the time, and never had the time too. Basically this was a static amplifier, a BUZZ maker. Mayber I was connecting things wrong, but it just made NOISE to anything I was connecting it to. I tried connecting a XLR microphone to it, and play that into my computer (via mic jack and line in), and a camcorder. I also tried connecting a microphione with a mic jack plug to it. Also tried the XLR mic to a Beringer Xenyx 502, which then connected to my computer, because the sound is so low with it.... Result? BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Could be a fluke with the one I got... too late to return it. Shoulda returned it... or shoulda bought something else.

LIMITER! Perfect for my application (which is somewhat unorthodox). I'm not using this for a microphone preamp at all. Instead, I've been looking for a device with a limiter feature that I use in a pre-fader situation involving live-streaming at a church. The audio inside the church sanctuary is mixed using a Behringer X32 40-channel mixer. The live-stream PC (a totally separate component) gets a stereo feed from a sub-output of the X32, essentially the same mix that's going to the sanctuary mains. HOWEVER, the volunteers doing the sound mix for the sanctuary aren't too attentive on the output levels; vocal music (choirs) and instruments are pretty heavy on the VU's. Spoken word is low. So, in order for me to get a consistent level on the live-stream I had to constantly adjust the input faders for the live-stream PC. And not always able to catch it before it red-lined the stream audio (crackle, crackling digital distortion). I searched and came across this little treasure with its very adequate limiter function. I take the audio feed from the "house" Behringer X32 and input it on this Tube Ultragain Mic 100; the output goes to the live-stream PC's audio input (line level). I made a few adjustments on the Tube Ultragain to get just the right amount of limiting and BAM! It takes care of the previous LOUD/soft levels, pretty much capping the loud (and yes, it does sound a bit compressed, but far better that than digital distortion). Btw,the noise others talk about is barely perceptible.

This little gem filled its intended purpose perfectly. I play harp (harmonica) at local open mic/jam sessions with friends. Mostly it's classic rock, southern rock, blues and some country. I used to play through the "house" PA, but found that to be restrictive in some ways, so I bought a small, 20W instrument amp to have a little more control over my sound. Well the little amp has difficulty keeping up with the more powerful guitar amps without driving it too hard (leading to distortion/muffled sound quality).. I didn't want to go with a bigger, more powerful amp, because I don't want to have to lug around big, heavy equipment, so I thought I'd try this pre-amp to keep from pushing the main amp too hard. I haven't tried it "live" as yet, but I did test it at home. Without the pre-amp, I had the main amp volume set to 8-9, and the three EQ setting equally high. The poor 8" speaker was definitely not happy. Once I plugged this pre-amp in between the mic and the amp, all that changed. With the pre-amp gain control set to almost the minimum setting, and the "output" (volume level) set to the 9 o'clock position, I get more sound out of the main amp with it's settings at 5 than I did with just the main amp set to 8-9, and the sound is SO much cleaner. I am dying to experiment with the gain setting to see what kind control over the overdrive I can get. The fact that this unit will take either XLR (balanced) or 1/4" TS (unbalanced), or a combination of the two, is a real bonus. The other controls are all very useful, especially the 20dB mute and the 48V phantom power. Not features expected from a device at this price point. The old school knobs allow instant tactile feedback in a dark venue, and the unit puts out very low noise unless the gain is turned way up. One other cool feature - the LED signal level meter doubles as a tube-warmup countdown timer...the LED's progressively extinguish (R to L) until they're all off. At that point, the tube is presumably warmed up. Nice feature, given the absence of an on/off switch. I did open up the unit to see how easy/difficult tube changes would be, and was impressed by the build quality and design. I'm an electronics tech by profession, so I'm very critical of those things, and this unit is made well, period. I didn't notice any tendency for the power plug to come loose. There is a cheap plastic clip adjacent to the port, to retain the power cord, but it is virtually useless - the ONLY criticism I can make of the entire unit. As a bonus, it is compact enough to fit into my small canvas bag, along with mics, cables, and my harp case. I look forward to many enjoyable sessions with this little device. UPDATE: Several sessions later, I continue to enjoy this unit. I can get a very nice "Chicago Blues" sound by driving the gain up and controlling any feedback with the level control. In conjunction with my small amp, I can more than keep up with the loud guitar amps and drums. A keeper.

I'm amazed at the people complaining of it being noisy. It does have A LOT of gain capability and I wonder if these people complaining of noise just don't understand how to set their gain stages. Something unusual that I found it perfect for .... it has enough gain and output level to drive a Leslie Cabinet. The tube amps in a Leslie cabinet were designed for Hammond Organs which put out a very high signal level (an obsolete standard called "Broadcast Level") that is much hotter than Line Level. So there aren't many devices (other than a Hammond Organ or specialty preamp) that can drive a Leslie Cabinet but this little tube preamp has enough output level to drive it really well - so you can play a guitar or mic thru a rotating Leslie speaker.

I use a Rode Procaster going into a Behringer XENYX X1204USB mixer but the mixer's preamps were not giving me enough gain so I purchased the Ultragain MIC100 to help give me the extra gain I needed. This helped some but unfortunately not enough. The problem is the Ultragain MIC100 is VERY noisy so I couldn't get enough gain and keep the signal clean. The added gain may be enough for others but it wasn't for me. I also didn't like having such a noisy device in my signal path. I ended up ordering the dbx 286s which not only gave me tons of clean gain but a great compressor, de-esser, enhancer, and gate. It did cost a good deal more than the Ultragain but it was a much better investment and I'm much happier.

I am a vocalist and needed a pre-amp for use with my Shure SM58, initially when I started using it I experienced a lot of background noise, which may be fine when performing live or with guitar but not for a quality vocal recording. Reviews form other users also confirmed that it wasn't just me. However it is all resolved and now I am able to record crisp clean professional class vocal. This is how I resolved it... so from my experience with my previous laptop that had a two pin charger I experienced bbbrrrrrrr like noise while using it for recording, but as soon as I disconnected power and used battery it worked fine and gave me perfectly clean output. Hence I blamed two pin chargers due to missing earth pin. Learning from the experience I suspected that the packaged charger was responsible for the noise. Hence, I replaced it with one that has an earth pin, then I turned on 20db Pad on and all the noise was gone leaving absolutely clean crisp vocal. I must admit I had almost thrown it away to go for a high end pre-amp like ART tube but, for a £32 with noise issue resolved I couldn't ask for more. Absolutely pleased with this product.

J'ai reçu mon préamplificateur 2 jours après l'avoir commandé. Il est arrivé neuf, en bon état et avec un adaptateur secteur prévu pour fonctionner en 230V. Je ne peux que le recommander aux personnes qui cherchent un produit correct avec un bon rapport qualité/prix.

Ho acquistato il TUBE ULTRAGAIN MIC100 con molte perplessità ma ho dovuto ricredermi. Il suo utilizzo, al momento, è insieme ad una testatina Hotone Mojo Diamond, potenza 5 Watt RMS, Questa testata ha un suono brillante e pulito, tipico degli amplificatori solidstate. Utilizzando il TUBE ULTRAGAIN MIC100 mi sono trovato un ampli completamente diverso, naturalmente dipende dal gain che si utilizza. Il suono diventa più caldo, avvolgente, quasi come il mio vecchio Davoli d'annata. Il blues e il rock passano da un suono troppo cristallino ad un crunc che sembra uscito da un vecchio 33 giri, per arrivare ad un distorto graffiante e aggressivo ma mai esasperato. Le casse che utilizzo sono delle casse HIFI 3 vie della Sony e pompano alla grande, non oso pensare quando lo collegherò all'ampli da 240 watt RMS con 2 coni da 12" che uso in esterno. Vedremo. Per ora posso solo consigliarlo per chi vuole un suono con un buon calore valvolare.

I have seen many reviews on youtube for this product. They seemed to be impressive. But finally I want to test it by my own. I bought this from amazon I got it yesterday with nice packaging. It includes the Tube pre and the power adaptor. Sound : This is a Wonderful Tube Pre. It gives you the warm and clean sound. Trust me This product will never disappoint you. I always believed that great sound need not be achieved through a 1000$ expensive products & finally I did it. I got the sound quality I was looking for. I am impressed with the sound quality. I connected this tube pre with Scarlette solo USB and a cheap MXL 550 condenser mic & recorded in FL Studio 12. You won’t believe the sound quality. Imagine If I use a pro-Quality condenser MIC like MXL CR89 or any other expensive MIC then it will blow your mind. And Imagine if you replace the stock tubes with a tungsol gold tube or Telepfunken tubes then sky is the limit for it.It is a solid grey metal body. Power supply : in the package your will get a power adaptor of 120v AC /16W input & 9v AC/1.3 Amps output. If you are in india you need to buy a 240v to 120v converter with 60Hz/~20-30 watts adaptor. I bought converter adaptor for Rs.250 from the nearest electronic store which has 50watts. But no problem at all. It works like a charm. Please don’t buy this converter from online cause they are costly and will have a doubt full quality. NOTE : 1. In order to achieve the desired tube saturation in the sound quality, Please wait for 10-15 mins after switching it ON, cause this is the tube pre and it needs time to heat up.

I record voice for podcasts as well as for syncing with video. I use either a shotgun mic or a RODE PodMic, plus an old Shure PGA48 for second mic, always into a Zoom H4NPro. Usually I need to have the shotgun at about 85/90, the Shure about 90/92, and the RODE at 96 on the levels. This means I have tons of hiss and crap. This Beringer allows me to record the RODE at 0.4. Yes, that’s right — 0.freaking4!! I use 60db input boost and put the output at about 9 o’clock. It gives me about -24dB on the H4NPro with zero hiss. It is just excellent. I would like to use it in the field but the power supply is about 2lbs so likely I won’t. But it’s so good ... I think the negative reviewers either had bad ones or didn’t really know how to use it (or maybe didn’t need it). It’s made a huge difference with the RODE tho.