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ART PRO VLA II tube swap

I recently bought the ART PRO VLA II Stereo Tube Compressor for my studio. It’s one of the most affordable compressors on the market and packs a ton of features in a sturdy 2 space rack. In researching this compressor I ended up at Gearslutz multiple times. Over and over I was reading that you MUST change the tubes for it to be useable in the studio. None of the pros that used it for the Tape Op Magazine review talked about NOS Unobtainium KGB vacuum tubes, but I felt I needed to try for myself before I permanently rack mounted the VLA.

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I also own the PRO MPA II Reference Series tube preamp. It comes with lower noise, Chinese 7025 tubes that are also compatible with the VLA. Since I had a matched pair of 7025 and the stock 12AT7s, I ran audio through each set and recorded the results.

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The audio source is 1kHz test tone, clap samples, acoustic guitar, and drum submix. The examples use a fairly heavy setting of about 10dB GR. Audio was going in line level and back to the daw. No other processing.

My opinion

The difference between the tubes is not as drastic as one might expect. They sound very similar in either the MPA preamp or VLA compressor. The 7025 tubes from the Reference Series MPA do sound a little tighter and about 1dB hotter output, and just a hair brighter. Self noise was about the same (extremely low) for either set. For me that’s not enough to immediately go buy a matched pair to replace the stock 12AT7, or even enough to spend more time and money on other options. I KNOW that I just swapped one set of cheap Chinese tubes for another, I don’t have any other matched sets to compare with. (send me a bunch of tubes and I’ll make time for a bigger shootout)

Trying out different tubes in my gear is something worth doing but not obsessing over. I tried just two of the hundreds of compatible tubes and it feels like I’ve spent all day on it. Either way it’s not magic, but it’s a solid compressor and great bang for buck.

8 Comments

  1. danny
    danny May 10, 2013

    Get a strong pair of US tubes and, if ART is actually DOING anything with it in this design, you will notice the difference. They don’t have to be perfectly matched, especially if you’re generally using it as a dual mono machine.

    • Mark Connell
      Mark Connell July 2, 2019

      I completely disagree . I am a 58 year old engineer. I replaced the tubes on a VLA PRO II with 1955 RCA Blackplate 12AX7’s , and the difference was night and day. It totally transforms an OK compressor , to a quite use able tool.

  2. crude
    crude May 27, 2013

    How can you draw conclusions of any kind? Comparing modern Chinese tubes and concluding you don’t need to try old stock doesn’t make sense. It’s an enormous difference in a guitar amp, but as the last poster said, ART may not be using the tube in a meaningful way in the compressor – it’s certainly not performing compression, probably used in the makeup stage?

    • Admin
      Admin May 27, 2013

      I said in the article “… that’s not enough to immediately go buy a matched pair to replace the stock 12AT7, or even enough to spend more time and money on other options. I KNOW that I just swapped one set of cheap Chinese tubes for another, I don’t have any other matched sets to compare with. (send me a bunch of tubes and I’ll make time for a bigger shootout)”

      At this time I’m too busy to care. I don’t have time for another shootout right now. The VLA II is useful and sounds good completely stock.

  3. mike
    mike July 1, 2013

    I don’t have the VLA but I have the MPA II. I researched it quite a bit and it seemed everyone was swapping out tubes so I was fully expecting to do that, but the stock ones sounded surprisingly good and not noisy at all (I have the Gold version, which I think might make a difference?).

  4. James
    James April 12, 2022

    Note that the engineer above replaced the stock 12AT7’s with 12AX7’s. 12AX7 has different gain characteristics (and internal voltage differences) vs 12AT7. I think that the change of gain characteristics may be the thing that’s going to drive larger differences in sonic characteristics of the compressor. I’ll be receiving some 12AX7s in the next week and will post results of my study.

    Here’s an actual citation on this rather than hearsay and words like “open” and “airy”:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12AX7

  5. James Kafader
    James Kafader April 12, 2022

    And another citation on the 12AT7 specifically and how its gain characteristics (mu) differ from 12AX7
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12AT7

    In particular:
    > The 12AT7 has somewhat lower voltage gain than the 12AX7, but higher transconductance and plate current, which makes it suitable for high frequency applications.

    which implies that the 12AT7 was specifically designed for high-frequency (they’re talking like “VHF” — Very High Frequency, in the radio band) amplifiers. The lower gain characteristics and higher general frequency applications that the 12AT7 vs the 12AX7 may explain a lot of what people are hearing here. I would in particular, expect 12AX7s to probably perform better in a low-frequency (think: bass) application

  6. ron smulevici
    ron smulevici June 6, 2023

    just swapped out the stock (12AT7’s?) pair for Gold Lion 12AU7’s. quality brand & lower gain tubes for quieter, cleaner results, no? any thoughts?

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