Groove Tubes Vipre

Groove Tubes Vipre is a single channel tube based microphone preamp.  The unit will take up three rack spaces in a traditional rack mount, and I'm not sure about the exact connections that it has because the one that I have used was already racked up in the studio, but it is safe to say that it has standard XLR connections in the back and I know that it does have a 1/4 inch input in the front.

UTILIZATION

The make up of the Groove Tubes Vipre isn't too hard to follow, although the pre does have a good amount of parameters to work with and to get used to.  The unit has two separate gain knobs - one for shifting in increments of 1 db and one for 5 db.  It then has knobs for choosing which type of input you'd like to use and one for the impedance, as well as knobs for rise time and the VU meter.  Vipre also has switches for polarity, hi-pass, phantom power, mute, and standby.  That's pretty much everything that there is to the pre, and overall it only took me a few minutes to get acquainted with the pre. 


SOUND QUALITY

While I'm usually not a huge fan of the pres that Groove Tubes has to offer, tube based gear is their specialty and I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the Vipre.  I wouldn't say that it is the most transparent pre that I've used as it definitely does color the sound a bit, but I wouldn't say that this is a bad thing because it simply has its own type of sound.  I like having so much control over the tone as it gives me a ton of options and makes it possible to use this pre with a variety of different applications.  For any application where you would want a fat and warm sound, the Vipre will definitely get the job done...


OVERALL OPINION

While the Groove Tubes Vipre will definitely cost a decent amount of change, it is definitely a good sounding tube pre.  I do think that it is a bit pricey, but for professionals looking for a nice sounding tube pre, it is still worth checking out.  While we have a variety of tube preamps to choose from these days, if you're in the market for one I would recommend checking out the Vipre in addition to those made by other manufacturers like Universal Audio and Summit...