Oct 9th, 2015
Q) Would opting for different tubes enhance the mods you make on the Behringer T1952 (Tube Compressor) and which tubes would you recommend?
A) Different tubes changing the sound? Yes and no. Yes a 12AT7 or AU7 would perform differently, but my research (after changing, modifying, listening, testing) shows that the circuit changes greatly over shadow any subtle changes by exchanging the tube and then recalibrating. In fact the whole point is that the 12AX7 with the front panel control adjustment will alter the tube character effectively to mimic the effects of various tubes. That is one of the reasons for the modification. As said previously I own an ART mic (tube) preamp which has controls to change the sound character in a dozen different ways. (I’ve sold 10 or 12 of these). I am not impressed by a $1000 preamp that does only one thing well. The tragedy is most people and engineers don’t truly understand how and why adjusting the tube harmonics relates to what they hear. You will have a learning curve too. In all honesty most people initially hear a basic “softness” or “edgy” character created but typically their monitor speakers are not clean enough to “hear into” the music, so the tube enhancement is simply adjusted to taste from their audio viewpoint limited by their monitors. The better the mics or the recording or the monitors, the more obvious the effect becomes. This modified Behringer becomes their key final mix compressor and enhancer.