I hadn't had this little munchkin out of the box long to realise that it was a sturdy and surprisingly well made piece of equipment with smooth pots and great design features. For the home studio it acts a a great balanced preamp for both instruments and vocal microphones (it has a direct jack input for 3/4" connectors). By chance, the most useful it has been so far is during live microphone applications - I use it to capture band practices with a condenser mic - and it adds a 'real' warmth to the sound, as well as providing a good, balanced signal to recording equipment. Some nice features are the 20dB pad which allows greater control in loud environments, and the handy dB meter that enables the band member nearest the MIC100 to quickly see if we're 'rockin that little bit too hard' and knock the input down a touch.

A great buy for the price, well reccommended.

NB: for PC users, ensure you have a balanced audio input as it is not possible to use this directly into a minijack PC soundcard.

i havent used it with vocals - i bought it for the sole purpose of adding valve like warmth/compression and break up to my digital guitar equipment (Behringer V-ampire LX210 amp, Digitech GNX3000 guitar processor and Line 6 UX1 toneport) = it does this fantastically well! so i am a happy camper = this is the sort of thing that can really become the "secret ingredient" in your signal chain.

However i have to drop it a few points because of the noise on the 1/4" connectors = the XLR connectors are fine, but the 1/4" ones can cause problems (depending on the application)

But like all the Behringer products it does the job great, its functional and CHEAP!!

Cheap as chips, maybe - but these mic preamps WORK. Low noise and useful connectivity - the XLR and line output can be used simultaneously, meaning that one output can be routed to the PA or stage amplifier etc., and the other to the recorder. Clear, simple controls, and the unit gets reassuringly warm with that 12AX7 gently glowing!

As a long-time "amateur professional" I remember the indefinable "X-factor" that I lost when I moved from analogue (tape) recorders to digital, hard-drive based recorders. I could never fault the digital recordings, which in many ways were superior (especially when it came to editability, cut & paste etc.) , but I still missed that presence and warmth that tape systems naturally provided. These Behringer mic preamps bring back some of that warmth and eliminate the 'starkness' of the digital recordings.

As these preamps have phantom power, I can now take the output signal of my studio mics directly to the limiter/gate/compressor before the recorder, saving time with tedious wave editing software. I can also d/i guitars and bass now for the first time in a long time, without that tinny "fizz".

The only criticism I have of this unit is that there is no way to control the Limiter, it's either on or off. The preset attack time does seem too slow to be useful on, say, acoustic guitars or instruments with high, fast transients. A minor point, unless you record a lot of wild, uncontrolled acoustic guitar!

I am not surprised by the excellent performance of this unit as it's made by Behringer of whom I'm a great fan. I am, however, surprised that one little valve can make such a difference to the overall character of a recording. I'm very impressed and VERY pleased. I'm saving up for another six!