The 7 Best external Mic preamps (2023 reviews)

We consider a external mic preamp to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: DBX external Mic Preamp READ REVIEW

Best For podcast: Buy: Triton Audio external Mic Preamp READ REVIEW

Best For home Studio: Buy: IK Multimedia external Mic Preamp READ REVIEW

Best With room correction: Buy: Xvive external Mic Preamp READ REVIEW

Best With reverb: Buy: ART Pre amp READ REVIEW

Best With XLR Output: Buy: Coda music technologies external Mic Preamp READ REVIEW

Best For Dynamic preacher: Buy: ART external Mic Preamp READ REVIEW

Best Overall: DBX external Mic Preamp

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The dbx external mic preamp should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. The great unit does a spectacular job of cleaning up background noise and is a great tool for VO. It is designed to clean up compress and amplify vocals. The detented pots make it easy to adjust repeat setups and closely match 2 mono units. It is electronically very accurate, allowing for seamless butt-end edits without the need for cross-fading.

The DBX gives you quite a bit of control over downward expansion so you can eliminate background noise or problematic room tone without hearing a gate slam in the end result. It allows you to make the voice sound very natural. The build quality is good, the controls are postive and accurately labeled, and the options it offers make it very flexible. The noise-gate really does an excellent job of keeping room noise out of your recordings.

• Great product for recording rap vocals
• Easy to install and simple to operate, plus dbx quality
• Really brings the quality of the vocal up a few notches
• A great processing unit for voice-over work

Best For podcast: Triton Audio external Mic Preamp

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Best part: triton audio external mic preamp costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. If you don’t have a preamp for your dynamic mics this is a great affordable choice. It is an ultra-low noise, high quality, in-line microphone preamplifier. It provides noise-free boost to signal from low output ribbon microphones, eliminating need for boutique ribbon preamps.

This device will work on either of those mics,one at a time. While it's a great sounding dynamic mic for vocal work, it has one big drawback. It will only work with dynamic mics and does need phantom power to work properly. The preamp is nestled in a small draw string bag, with the Triton logo printed on it. This unit does pass phantom power through so your Rode Condenser mic will get power.

• Extra coloration, simply more gain and lower noise floor
• Designed for ribbon and dynamic microphones
• 60 db of gain required by the sm7b can introduce unwanted noise
• Excellent gain and low noise with shure sm7b

Best For home Studio: IK Multimedia external Mic Preamp

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Best part: ik multimedia external mic preamp costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. A class-a mic preamp with adjustable gain delivers exceptional audio quality for recording, performance, broadcast and podcasting. The iRig Pre 2 is compact, functional, and easy to use. This portable preamp with xlr input and true +48v phantom power ensure a clean, crisp sound with any dynamic mic, condenser mic or ribbon mic. It works well for simple recording (using it from your phone as an interface with a good microphone) or even streaming.

This is designed for an XLR input from a microphone. Whether you have iphone, ipad, or android devices, this recording interface will work on all (even with digital cameras), and make your vocals and instruments shine. There are bright lights on top of the unit so you will always know when it is on, and when Phantom power is engaged. It's compact, functional, and easy to use.

• A great portable, versatile interface with good sound quality
• Excellent audio quality and compact design
• A must-have accessory for any recording enthusiast

Best With room correction: Xvive external Mic Preamp

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We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't mention xvive external mic preamp for daily purpose. Xvive’s ultra-compact u4 iem wireless system delivers audiophile-quality sound to your in-ear monitors, headphones, or earbuds. It provides 12 or 48 volt phantom power for a condenser microphone. The P1 is lightweight, portable, and durable, and gives you an option of 12V rather than 48v. This is perfect to power your microphone/pre-amp enough while also recording at a lower volume, which is perfect to record loud instruments/vocals.

This phantom power supply is really convenient because it doesn't require an external power source, it's powered by a lithium battery. You can even plug a dynamic mic straight into your camera and get great sound when you combine the p1 with a cloudlifter or other in-line preamps. The unit is battery operated and can be charged.

• Versatile, portable and easy to use
• Very small footprint and built very tough with its all metal chassis
• Feels nice and solid and very quiet

Best With reverb: ART Pre amp

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If you want nothing less than best desirable preamp, then art pre amp is the one you should definitely consider. This ART is designed to be used with a mic like a Shure SM58 and produce a high level output via the XLR out or phone out. It's designed for musical instruments and has only one channel of gain and output, and it will supply phantom power to the mic. It's also great for yelling at people if they are telling you to speak up and you don’t really want to, and you can make their ears bleed.

The device will boost gain on a dynamic mic, but is designed as a limiter. It's a fun little piece of equipment, the 20dB boost button is a nice feature, as well as the limiter and tone selection. The tube pins are soldered directly to wires. You can use this in your signal chain as a tone enhancer for your vocals.

• Nice boost with a warm sound for condenser microphone
• Very powerful tune saturator tool for home recording, especially for bass and vocals
• Great for turning mic volume up and down
• Adds a lot of welcome color to vocals, acoustic instruments, mic'd cabs, etc

Best With XLR Output: Coda music technologies external Mic Preamp

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The coda music technologies external mic preamp's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. Cordless microphones have a gain control on the transmitter, or receiver, or both. It works great using a yamaha mixer. It takes phantom power, so as long as you have an audio interface or soundboard with 48v then you won't need a separate external power source. Another thing worth noting is that the enclosure is metal and it has brackets on the front and back to protect your XLR cables. This will definitely boost the output of your microphone into the preamp of your mixer.

This is not an audio interface, this is a microphone preamp booster, it gives more volume to a dinamic mic, such as the Shure sm7b or Rode mic.

• Works great on 58's and other dynamic mics
• Additional noise, no feedback, no negative effects
• Great gain, no noise and plenty of volume headroom
• Much less gain needed on pa and audio interface

Best For Dynamic preacher: ART external Mic Preamp

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The art external mic preamp's high-end materials makes sure that it ages well with use. The Tube MP project series is a professional quality audio interface that lets you connect microphone, instrument, and line level signals to audio inputs to digital audio workstations as well as standard analog devices. It also powers your condenser mic, so you might consider it in your live rig so that you can use a condenser. It's great for emulating an old school tape sound when tracking. It will limit the peaks of your recordings, just make sure you turn the compressor on and apply appropriate threshold settings.

This unit has an unbalanced 1/4” output (so use TS, not TRS cables), and you certainly could use an XLR to 1/4” adapter if you want to use the balanced output. It will supply phantom power. It will not make your whispers quite as loud as your shouting but they will get closer when you increase the Output.

• Feature laden and it sounds great
• Lots of different flavors of compression with the various switch combinations
• A great budget addition for live or recorded vocals and instruments