● ART Tube MP Modified Product - Great Sound - Russian Tube

● Modified ART Tube MP by Black Lion Audio.

◯ The ART Tube MP has been a long-selling product for over 30 years. Because its name is Tube MP, it's often mistaken for a tube microphone preamplifier, but its microphone preamplifier section is a discrete transistor circuit with 6 transistors. It then follows a hybrid configuration of an op-amp → vacuum tube buffer → op-amp balanced output circuit. While ART's pricing leads to it being treated as a cheap product, considering its board construction and design, it's exceptionally well-made within its price range compared to other companies. In its original state, the sound is thick, warm = less high-end, soft focus, but after modification, the sound quality becomes clear and solid with a strong core from the discrete components. By increasing the voltage of the vacuum tube's plate and op-amps, headroom is increased, and the penetrating high-end characteristic of high-speed op-amps is also present, resulting in a completely different and excellent sound compared to before modification.

◯ The majority of the modifications follow the famous Black Lion Audio mod, with component values changed accordingly. Diodes in the power supply section, smoothing capacitors, signal path capacitors, op-amps were replaced, and resistors were replaced with audio-grade metal film resistors. Decoupling capacitors in the signal path include large-capacity film capacitors, high-quality sounding tantalum capacitors, and Nichicon audio-grade capacitors. The op-amps used are the high-speed National Semiconductor LM6172 for the input stage and the high-speed Leniar Technology LT1364 for the output stage. The vacuum tube is the original Chinese-made one, but approximately 50 components in total have been replaced.

◯ I always list the same type of item, but each is a different unit. This particular unit comes with the large-capacity, large-sized adapter that was included with early models. The vacuum tube is the now-rare, high-reliability Russian-made SOVTEK 12AX7WA.