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MXR M81, worth the money? Anything better?

#21
Chickenwheels said:
Regarding noise with this pedal: use a good quality power supply (1Spot) or battery.
Click to expand...

in my case a good isolated power supply didn't help. I don't recall, which one was that, either an ISO Brick or mini-ISO brick, or Ojai. I also tried phantom power and the results were the same.

it wasn't that noisy, but definitely had more floor noise, I expect from a DI/preamp. and yes, I didn't use XLR and 1/4" outputs at once (some users note that it makes their M81 much more hissy). I've checked both 1/4" via a separate passive DI and XLR out and the noise was similar in both, so that was the preamp's noise floor.

maybe, I had a defective unit. or maybe my 'noisy' is your 'noiseless' and that's it.
 
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#23
mmbongo said:
Well me personally....I would rather have a SushiBox Finally or the one I actually do use...Broughton Messenger. But either of those are a little harder to find and will cost more. But for the price and the size, the M81 is hard to beat!
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Thanks man, those seem like great pedals, the messenger stuck out to me more, but it also has a lot of knobs
but I actually work at a small called gc... so I get a pretty decent discount as an employee... so price wise I wouldn't be selling an arm and a leg
 
#24
Freekmagnet said:
I think the MXR M81 is a great preamp pedal. If you’re looking for a quiet preamp that doesn’t impart any of its own coloration on your sound, it does that job very well. I actually bought it for the sole purpose of beefing up the low mids on my Jazz Bass, and it did the job without changing the overall tone or feel of the bass.

If you’re looking for a preamp pedal that completely changes the character of your bass sound, the MXR M81 is probably not the best choice.
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This is exactly what this pedal will do. The MXR M81 will let you quickly dial a boost or a cut anywhere on the frequency spectrum, without any tedious fidgeting. The controls are straight and simple. And it won't color your sound. Plus, it comes with all the important functions required of a DI box, all in a super compact and economic format.

I'm sure that you can invest in a more complete DI/preamp unit and that it will bring many more dimensions to your sound that the M81 doesn't.
But, if you're asking for clean, simple and affordable tone shaping, it can't be beat.
 
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#26
I use the m80 di+ distortion before my darkglass and it works real well for what I need.
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#27
MYLOWFREQ said:
MXR M81 is very transparent and it does not add noise to your signal IME. If you need a clean DI, it does it very well. I use it right after my high-pass filter to send a clean DI signal when needed, and to match the levels of my basses as it has a pre and a post gain knob. Then I got all the other pedals in line ending with Sansamp BDDI for some amp flavor.
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That sounds like a cool board my guy! but I mainly need a "clean" DI out to house if need be
 
#29
I had the M80 for the longest time. I believe the M81 is slightly more advanced in it's clean tone control. I liked the M80 for the clean tone, but didn't like it's drive.

I have a Darkglass Microtubes B7K Ultra V2 now. Way different class than what you're looking for though.

I would suggest buying used. That way if you don't like it and want to sell, you won't take as much of a hit.
 
#31
Nighttrain1127 said:
I had an M81 and it was transparent and had powerful enough EQ section. I will probably get another one at some point. Right now I am using a Joyo California Drive I believe it is supposed to sound like a Mesa. It is also pretty transparent depending on where the character knob is .
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Ngl seems like the wine cellar but without a DI, also I'm not really looking for a specific amp sound if I'm being honest. What made you not have an M81 tho?
 
#33
Aloe said:
I briefly owned a M81 and found the DI a tad noisy for my taste. also didn't care for the EQ, the mid boost felt plasticky to me.

my SpectraDrive was a bit more expensive, but the DI out was much better. I was hoping to downsize to M81, but tried and went back.
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I'll definitely have to check out the Spectra! Also, I don't wanna be that guy, but did you have your ground lift on lol? But I definitely don't want a plasticity sound on my mids, so I am going to take that into consideration, I'm also not too worried about the eq since that's not what I'm totally after, I sorta wanna pair this with the 1/4lbs and see how'd it sound.
 
#35
Xavier Isaac said:
That sounds like a cool board my guy! but I mainly need a "clean" DI out to house if need be
Click to expand...

If you only need a clean DI with no amp simulation etc. then the MXR M81 is what you want IMHO. You can bypass the EQ section (which is very quite and transparent) with one of the switches. I have zero noise issues, and heard it's quiter than the Q Strip.
 
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#40
matante said:
1. If you have no complaints with the Wine Cellar you have no reason to replace it.

2. If you think you'll want to replace it once you get new pickups, why not wait until you get the new pickups?

3. The cleanest and most transparent DI you can get is an actual DI Box, not a preamp. Look into a Radial PRO48 or similar.

4. If you want something that can help you "juice up your sound and tone", as you put it, then you don't really want something transparent. That's a contradiction.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for responding, I got a bit busy with life there for a sec ,

1. It's a bit bulky in size, pretty noisy, it's not true bypass, and its a pretty limiting on how much I want to add to my sound. I'm trying to downsize my pedals on my board, so it's not so cramped.

2. I got the new pickups (they sound great) I've already recorded with them and my WC was alright. Although I lacked some mids with it, and honestly I want to experiment with my tone. I try not to be a one-setting type of guy so definitely want to be more adventurous with how approach my sound. The WC I feel was a great start, it's affordable, and does the basics. But definitely lacks in some areas.

3. That is true, although I'm trying to stick to my metro 20 as I don't want to carry much more than that. So adding a DI Box wouldn't be the best call for me, at least not at the moment in my professional life. The M81 would kill 2 birds with one stone, I already have a Digitech Drop pedal on the side and it looks janky in my opinion so having a DI Box outside my board wouldn’t be the best for my conscious although most of those are built like tanks. But I also want to carry the least amount of things as possible. I do record with an actual DI Box tho. But I think just having a DI and preamp small enough to fit on my board with all my other stomps is great. But If ever do upsize on a board I'll definitely use the Radial PRO48!! Thanks for the recommendation!

4. Yes, again sorry for my confusion, I made the post past my bedtime lol. I meant having a transparent DI, although I'm sure that I know if I really want that or not at the moment.

Btw I've bought the damn thing it arrives Tuesday, if i don't like it I have 45 days to return it either way, but thanks for the feedback m8!
 

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