“I received many compliments from my fellow sales-engineers on how swell the recording through the MSS10 sounded. ”
- Nate Proulx
Summary Info
Manufacturer:
Martinsound
Product Name:
MSS-10
Retail Price:
$1995.00
Your Price:
$0.00
Martinsound MSS-10 Review - Reviewed By Nate Proulx
The MSS10 is one of those great, but over-looked pieces out there. Martinsound isn’t a company I’ve heard much about, but was quite impressed with the quality of the MSS10. It looks great, feels great, and sounds really nice!
Sounds Great Anywhere
I took it home, along with the Avalon M5 - I found out that I liked both a lot! Both are Class-A, solid-state pre’s, and both in a similar price range. I set-up a less-than-ideal recording in my apartment, tracking a Washburn acoustic guitar with a Rode NT5, and some vocals with a Royer R121, and then running the pre’s into the line inputs on my Mbox into ProTools. I also compared them to the Mbox Focusrite preamps just for kicks.
That Martinsound Sound
What I found was that the Mbox Focusrite pre’s sounded pretty good, but that the MSS10 and the M5 sounded noticeably better, as one would expect from spending 3 times as much money. The differences between the M5 and the MSS10 weren’t as noticeable. Both sounded great, it was more a matter of differences in tonal color. Where the Mbox pre sounded a little veiled, the MSS10 and the M5 were more open, clear, and more detailed. But my guitar-playing monkey and I both agreed that we preferred the sound of the MSS10 both on the guitar and on the vocal. It had a little more presence and was smoother. Having done a garage-band quality recording in my noisy apartment, I received many compliments from my fellow sales-engineers on how swell the recording through the MSS10 sounded.
Nicely priced and sized, the MSS10 is extremely convenient to use and to take anywhere (with a handle and internal power supply); add that to that incredible Martinsound sound, and you have a serious winner!
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