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M-Audio Tampa
The magazine for sound engineers and recording musicians
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$4.95 Australia, $8.95 NZ (inc. GST)
Issue 24
Paul
Oakenfold

76
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M-Audio Tampa
The Tampa is a ‘vocal channel’ with an on-board ‘THA’ harmonics generator. Sean
Diggins doesn’t go overboard.
Preamp mania has gripped the audio world for a few
years now, in line with the logarithmically expanding
project studio market and the need for high quality
front ends for DAWs. Regardless of your budget or taste,
there’s a preamp available that’s just right for you – and a
gazillion glossy adverts to tell you why. Unfortunately for
hardware manufacturers keen to diversify (due to the
shrinking analogue mixer and processor markets),
preamps are rather bland in the bells and whistles
department – the best preamps are the simplest, but
there’s nothing particularly exciting about marketing a
gain control. Hence the rise of preamps with add-on
features, such as ‘tube’ preamps with visibly glowing
vacuum tubes, EQ sections, compressors, digital outs...
and the now ubiquitous voice channels that contain
everything except the actual singer (maybe one day...).
Despite all of this, one element of the signal path has
generally remained unchanged – the preamp’s gain
control is difficult to market as something new, because
basically, it isn’t. This is where M-Audio’s savvy development
team noticed room for improvement, resulting in a
new method to deal with harmonics. This method sits
somewhere between the minimal harmonics of pure
solid state preamps and the ‘warmth’ generated by good
tube preamps. Tagged as Temporal Harmonic Alignment
(THA), M-Audio’s new technique as been hailed, by
some, a as major breakthrough and has now emerged in
the Tampa (see box item on the next page).
Although not known for high-end pro equipment, M-
Audio has always impressed me as a high quality American
manufacturer of project studio devices – the small M-
Audio mixer that I have owned for years is a beautifully
engineered box which sounds wonderful (given the price
category) and the company’s Delta soundcard range is well
established as a worthy product line. Tampa has been
designed and priced to sit comfortably alongside the
existing M-Audio range, competing with other mid level
products from the likes of Joe Meek, TL Audio, Edirol, dbx
and Focusrite’s Platinum series. While not a typical mono
voice channel, the Tampa sails very close to this definition,
providing a preamp, compressor and digital out.
Smart Deco
First impressions were very good – the 2U device has a
brushed silver faceplate and is distinctly Art Deco in
style. Pseudo bakelite knobs, robust metal switches and
nice VU meters add to a look that exudes class, matched
by good build quality and a solid, slightly weighty feel –
there’s definitely something inside there! Unlike many
single rack unit devices, the Tampa has a spacious and
sensible front panel layout with the controls arranged
sequentially from input on the left, to the output controls
on the right (the output sockets are located on the rear
panel). Each control is visually and ergonomically accessible
and there are no LED menus to negotiate.
To the extreme left are the AC and 48V (phantom)
power switches, followed by the input section. The
choice of a Neutrik XLR/TRS input socket speaks
volumes for the impedance range of this device – the
Tampa is also very suitable as an instrument preamp,
offering a switch that increases the load to 100kΩ
(unbalanced TRS) or 200kΩ (balanced TRS). The Mic
impedance selector offers four impedance settings –
300, 600, 1200 and 2400 ohms, being suitable for most
ribbons or vintage tube mics at the low end and
modern FETs up high. (It’s worth noting that
impedance selection is an unusual and welcome
addition to a preamp in this price category).
According to the manual, Tampa is capable of a
massive 66dB gain increase, which should be enough
for any ribbon. However, I did not test this claim. The
gain knob offers 46dB of gain and a boost switch
offering an extra 20dB. There are no notches in the panel
or pot, so marker pens will probably be handy to mark
the sweet spots for regular setups. Toward the centre of
the panel we find a low cut switch that rolls off 12dB per

octave below 80Hz (fairly standard), followed by a compressor
which uses a servo-controlled dual passive
optical attenuator. Once again, a pleasant surprise to find
an optical compressor in a voice channel in this price
category. The compressor can be switched in or truly
bypassed, and offers threshold, ratio, attack and release
controls with typical opto parameters. Unfortunately,
there is no makeup gain control – this is probably the
only shortcoming of this device (even though the manual
offers a solution that involves summing the two-channel
digital output). Adjacent to the compressor we find a
gain reduction VU meter and an output VU meter (plus
Clip LED). The dual VUs are a nice addition, rather than
the usual switchable single VU meter. On the right hand
side of the unit is a four-position sample rate switch for
digital output selection, offering 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96k
sample rates. Immediately beneath this is a phase switch
and a 20dB output pad switch that is designed to allow
the front end of the unit to be cranked hard to really fire
up the harmonics. The back panel is simplicity itself –
four audio connectors only, comprising an RCA S/PDIF
digital out, XLR AES/EBU digital, unbalanced TRS
analogue and balanced XLR analogue outputs. Power is
supplied via a robust 12V AC adapter, which is better
than your average wall-wart and presumably removes the
problem of international power settings.
Rack ‘em Up
The specs and manual make impressive reading (see box),
so I was looking forward to firing up the Tampa and
hearing it in action over the short period allowed for the
review. I took the unit to Rob Grant’s Poons Head Studios
and we lined up a heap of preamps and mics to give the
Tampa a solid workout alongside some vintage pres and
the newer competing products. I later ran the preamp up
against an original Behringer Ultragain and a Mackie VLZ,
as well as my vintage Burman instrument preamp. My
Quad 8 modules didn’t arrive in time from the workshop
for comparison. The short review? The Tampa excelled in
all categories and truly justified the (very reasonable)
asking price – it’s not as good as the world’s best, but it
M-Audio’s Steve Cullison talks Temporal Harmonic Alignment
“Aligning harmonics in the manner as is done in Tampa isn’t a special effect,
but instead, is a basic property of the circuitry. That is, the ‘aligned harmonics’
aren’t added in afterwards, but occur naturally as a byproduct of amplification.
In a more conventional design, such harmonics are also produced, but the
designer pays no attention to their timing. So, their presence isn’t unusual, only
their timing is. In Tampa the timing of the amplifier’s harmonics is intentionally
controlled and is precisely held to a value that provides a very transparent,
natural sound.
Now, one complication to all of this is Tampa’s soft-clipping feature, which
admittedly is a special effect. This feature increases the intensity of the already
aligned harmonics as the output nears clip. This is done to generate that
pleasing, much-desired coloration often referred to as ‘tube warmth’. Tube
warmth occurs whenever the intensity of the well aligned midrange harmonics
that tubes commonly produce is very high.
In Tampa, ‘tube warmth’ is intended to be an optional effect, one can have it
or not as desired simply by controlling the signal level. But, regardless of their
intensity, the harmonics are always aligned.”

eats others in its price range and is a beautiful piece of
equipment for a project studio or DAW front end.
Rob and his partner Sam lined up the classic AKG
Tube and Neumann U87 FET mics along with a lovely
Sennheiser pencil mic to give us a good range of microphones.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to fire up Rob’s
favourite ribbon mic, which was a shame given the input
impedance options of the Tampa. To compare with
other preamps, we chose a vintage Telefunken V72A and
a Neve 1084, plus the more recent Bellari RP220, a
Drawmer 1960 and a beautiful Neve 1073 re-issue by
Shep. With the dulcet tones of Sam and an old Martin
acoustic guitar as our sound sources, we spent a few
hours trying the Tampa at various settings and
comparing the results to the rest of the lineup. Due to
time restrictions, we didn’t set up a double blind comparison,
but this wasn’t intended to be a shootout. I really
just wanted to hear how Tampa stacked up against
preamps and mics that I know well.
Tampa sounded good immediately. Within 10 seconds
of Sam starting to speak through the AKG, we knew this
product was a worthy addition to the range of voice
channels available for under $2,500. The preamp
captured all of the nuances of her voice and produced a
sweet, natural sounding top end without any trace of
brittle sibilance or harsh consonants. The compressor
also immediately sounded great without any tweaking –
this was going to be fun!
Running Sam through the Telfunken and Neves
brought us back down to earth. Although Tampa
sounded great, the famed preamps sounded simply
divine by comparison. In particular, the Telefunken
sounded completely “unprocessed”, almost as if Sam
was standing inside the speakers. The Neve was a bit
more ‘hyped’, but still sounded truer and more natural
than the Tampa. That said, in reality the Drawmer 1960
and the ‘tube masher’ Bellari also paled alongside the
three classics, so it’s not a condemnation of the Tampa.
Rather, it shows that even the so-called Temporal
Harmonic Alignment can’t beat the pure old-fashioned
design of the world’s classic vintage preamps. The same
applied when listening to acoustic guitar. Of course, you
don’t get a compressor in a Neve preamp... and you don’t
even get input gain or EQ in the Telefunken, much less
VU meters and digital outputs!
Tampa Proof
After much listening, our conclusions were unanimous –
in sound quality, the Tampa whips the over-hyped and
grainy Bellari, almost equals the Drawmer 1960 but
doesn’t come near the Telefunken or Neves. However, the
Drawmer 1960 is the only device that offers similar
features to the Tampa (ie on-board compression) but it
lacks the digital output. In other words, you really get
three devices within the Tampa and it should be considered
on that basis, not just on the quality of the preamp.
Back in my project studio, I was happy to find the
Tampa sounded considerably sweeter than the Behringer

Ultragain (which was quite respectable in its first incarnation)
and offered more character than the dry Mackie
VLZ. Vocals were wonderful with an Oktava 319 and
Shure Beta 87, while the Octava 012 was stunning with
acoustic guitar. Cranking the gain for a Fender Jazz bass
gave a full rich tone which reminded me somehow of an
Ampeg sound, but didn’t quite have the true valve
character of the Burman preamp. Mind you, it didn’t have
the hiss either! Additionally, the compressor and the
digital out allowed me to input pumping, grinding bass
straight into my DAW – Tampa is an excellent instrument/DAW
interface for clean and compressed sounds
and offers better output quality than, say, a Line 6 POD
(without effects or emulation of course).
I spent a lot of time with the compressor and really
grew to appreciate its round, warm character, but found
the lack of makeup gain to be a little frustrating when
setting the various levels down the signal path. Finding
unity becomes a game of adjusting the gain, and
threshold pots while toggling the 20dB cut and boost
switches. Once you get used to it, the results are fine, but
it can sometimes be hard to achieve high output levels –
in the beginning I often found it hard to get the output VU
meters to hit 0dB, much less crank into the red. But
make no mistake, Tampa’s compressor is an excellent
processor to have in your rack. Perhaps it’s the THA, but I
really like the sound of this processor.
The digital output worked perfectly in my tests with an
RME Multiface and a Yamaha DSP Factory. The convert-
ers are very good – presumably they are the same as
those used in the Delta soundcards, but they don’t seem
quite as open and clear as the Multiface or SEKD A/D
D/As (made by German company Kunhle). I’d probably
pass the analogue output into standalone converters, but
suffice to say the digital output is fine for anyone not
owning a set of high quality A/Ds.
It’s unfortunate that circumstances prevented me from
comparing Tampa to direct competitors such as the
dbx386 and 586, but I can say that the 386 didn’t impress
me nearly as much when I last heard it. I doubt that the
superiority of Tampa is due only to the THA feature, but
it’s possible. Unfortunately, there is no way of auditioning
the Temporal Harmonic Alignment – it is integral to the
signal path and cannot be switched in and out. But I have
to concede the THA is doing something to the audio, as
this device doesn’t sound exactly like a solid-state preamp
and it doesn’t sound exactly like a tube preamp. Neither is
it in between...Tampa occupies its own turf, and in the
preamp universe, that’s a very good place to be. AT
Distributed by
• Electric Factory
Phone: (03) 9474 1000
Email: sales@elfa.com.au
Web: www.elfa.com.au or www.m-audio.com
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