ART USB Dual Pre USB 1.1 Digital Audio Interface with Dual Microphone Preamps

From a sonic point of view, this is really rather decent, however: NOTE: I have two of these pres, and both exhibit the same issues. The battery compartment/wiring is really badly designed. The door is fiddly, and the wires might last maybe single-digit battery changes before coming off at the board. They are only soldered directly, with no strain relief. Why? Why not a slide-to-make contact arrangement? The presence battery door suggests you could use it, and perhaps on a camera, but the poor design precludes this, unless you are handy and can make a D-tap (with regulator as it ceilings at 12v), etc., or use Sony NP-F outboard battery. I had that stuff lying around, but if not, the great price might be canceled out. RF rejection: You may not encounter this, but despite a really nice aluminum extruded casing, and although fine in other situations, for some reason this preamp picked up pulsing from our wireless FF, even though replacing it with a lowly Zoom H4 exactly the same cables & position) eliminated the problem. Phantom power: Takes a long time (many seconds) to engage, and makes a loud hiss-storm as it charges up. Additionally, although the main power button has a light, the phantom does not. Also, both units have now decided to be very noisy with phantom power, causing us to use internal battery mics. No 416s, etc. So, despite best efforts, I cannot get this to function for production, and due to the phantom noise/failure (after only about 6 months of occasional use) I can't see how it could be recommended for anything, except that power light still shines ridiculously brightly!