ART Preamp question

[peejer]

Hello,

i am wanting to boost the signal from my guitar into my 17" MBP. I am using garage band 3. I have done some research and from what I can tell I need a preamp to boost the signal to line level. OK. I am good with that. After looking around I am pretty much sold on the products by ART. There are four in particular that appeal to me and they are all in the ART tube MP Project series.

a: ART-Tube-MP-Professional-Mic-PreampProcessor $44
b: Art Tube MP Project Series USB $99
c: Art Tube MP studie V3 $69
d: ART-Tube-MP-Project-Series-Tube-MicrophoneInstrument-Preamp $65Out

Out of all of these I thought I was most intrigued by the studio V3, that is until I called around my local shops and one clerk told me about the USB version. He said this was better since it bypassed the sound card.

So my questions are this: !) Does anyone use any of these and do you like them 2) Is there a grain of truth to the USB claim the clerk made?

Thanks for your thougts.

 

[CanadaRAM]

The ART series are decent tools for the dollars. You are NOT expecting the $50 tube preamp to be clean clear and un-coloured. They do distort the sound, but for guitar that may be in a good way. I have an ART tube pre and leverller (compressor) that I use with electric guitar.

If the ART with the USB connection has a halfways competent A/D convertor, then it potentially will be as good or better sound than pumping the analog audio through your line-in, and it certainly will be easier to balance levels.