Hey guys,

I'm looking for a preamp to use with my Electro-Voice RE20 and Sennheiser ME66. I was thinking about either a Sound Devices MixPre or 302, as I need to be able to use it out in the field as well as in-house, but was wondering if anyone here has any experience with the SD MixPre or 302 with the Electro-Voice RE20, and if so, how they performed, etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

DD.

In my experience the RE20 sounds fine though my 302. (at least with a pro V/O person in a studio environment) Either the 302 or MixPre Base your choice more on whether you need the extra features of the 302.

Cheers for the reply, Rick - I'll read up on the differences between the MixPre and 302.

I was also wondering, are any of the cheaper, sub $300 preamps made by ART, M-Audio, Focusrite, etc, worth getting as a dedicated in-house preamp? Or do they simply not produce clean enough audio for the likes of the RE20? I've read the RE20 needs at least +60dB of clean gain to get a hot enough signal worth recording.

DD.

If the mic is used for it's 'intended' applications, gain should not be an issue... though the RE27 and the brand spank'n new RE320 are a little hotter. FYI, the 320 now has a switch to optimize it for kick drum usage. The RE20 was once popular for that before the AKG D112 and other 'specialty' drum mics made their debut.
I would be skeptical about the noise and quality of a pre-amp for less than $300. Personally evaluate any before buying. In addition, most stand-alone studio pre amps do not have a HP out, if that's an issue for your set-up.

The preamps in any Sound Devices mixer will be far superior to any of the other preamps you mention.

In comparing the Mix Pre to the 302 you want to consider what you'll need down the road. While the Mix Pre is a great piece of gear and may meet your needs now, the features of the 302 make it much more capable for location or studio use. The metering alone will be so much better you'll likely save yourself a lot of work in post because you'll be able to nail the levels when your shooting.

Any SD preamp will have plenty of gain for an RE20.