Avalon 737 Review – Best Mic Pre for the Money?
Reviewer: Jake Jones
User Rating: 
Product Reviewed: Avalon VT 737 SP
What is The Avalon 737?
The Avalon 737 (specifically the Avalon VT 737 SP) is a mic preamp, compressor, and EQ all in one. It is high end, professional gear. If you’ve reading this review you probably know that, and I’ll assume you’re looking for top-notch pro gear.
In this review, I won’t spend a ton of time of the specs of this unit, you’ve probably seen all that and you can see it on countless other websites, and you can get a great quick overview of the specs here. I want to focus on what makes this piece of gear so popular, and inform you so you know whether or not to make the investment.
Best Place to Buy the Avalon 737?
We’ve done tons of research and bought tens of thousands of dollars of gear over the years, here are my best picks:
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Reason #1. 5 payments of $450 (no interest, no need to create a line of credit)
Reason #2. 45 Day Price Match Guarantee – find it cheaper and they refund you. Reason #3. 45 Day Money Back Guarantee - return for any reason. Full refund. My Thoughts: I’ve purchased over $15,000 of gear from AMS over the years and have never been disappointed. Not once. I continue to recommend American Musical Supply to everyone I talk with. Free shipping, too. |
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Reason #1. Good return policy.
Reason #2. You may already have an Amazon.com account – makes buying easy. My Thoughts: Chances are you’ve already bought something on Amazon.com before. Huge and trusted, they are not a bad place to buy music and studio gear, if they carry what you’re looking for. |
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eBay.com |
Reason #1. Potential for a good deal.
WARNING: Buy only from users with great feedback! My Thoughts: I’m not a big fan of buying used gear that’s this expensive, but occasionally you can find a good deal on a new Avalon 737 on eBay. Just make sure you buy from users with excellent feedback or you could get burned. |
How Does the Avalon 737 Sound?
Here’s where we get into a little bit of weird territory: sound is a subjective matter, and not everyone agrees on what sounds good. HOWEVER, the pros are all generally in agreement that the Avalon 737 sounds ‘incredible’ however you measure it. Clean, brilliant, punchy, professional are all words that come to mind.
This unit is considered to be very ‘transparent’ meaning that it will not overly color your sound. This is a good thing because you want to capture the purest tone up front, then do any editing to it later.
What Should You Record with the Avalon 737?
This thing will make your vocals sound incredible. I recommend pairing it with a great mic like the Neumann TLM-103 to get flat-out pro sound that can compete with the Big Boys. But, this mic pre ain’t no one trick pony – run bass guitar direct to your Digital Audio Workstation for incredible tones, or use it to record acoustic guitar that will knock your socks off.
You might even try running your programmed drums through the Avalon 737 to give it some warmth and compression. Bottom line is that this piece of gear is a real workhorse that’s good for a lot of things in the studio.
Pro Tips
For the best results, let this bad boy warm up for 30 minutes before recording with it. This will let those analog tubes get nice and warm before you start recording your tracks.
Also, make sure to turn the Avalon 737 off when you’re not using it – you’ll get a lot more life out of the tubes and electronics by doing this.
Lastly, you may want to buy an extra set of tubes, especially if you’re recording for clients. The last thing you want is for a tube to go out when you have a recording session scheduled.
Avalon 737: Pros
- Absolutely gorgeous sound
- Combines EQ, Compressor, and Preamp into one 2U rack-mountable unit – your whole signal chain basically, nice n’ easy
- Looks great in your studio – knobs, meter, the works. You know you love gorgeous gear!!
Avalon 737: Cons
- If you’ve been recording with a cheaper mic pre, it will make you want to go back an re-record everything
- Very heavy, NOT portable
- Not cheap, but worth every penny
Overall Recommendation: Buy with Confidence
This is an expensive price of gear, but I look at it this way: You need to buy a mic pre anyway, so you’re already going to spend a few hundred dollars. If you go for the best, you will save yourself countless hours of re-tracking vocals, acoustic guitar, and bass. You see, once you use this thing, you will be unhappy with stuff you’ve already tracked 
Find a way to get the best first – sometimes on expensive gear I will use a payment plan.
Avalon 737 Video Review:
Want to hear what the 737 actually sounds like? Check out this complete review below. Make sure you listen to this on studio monitors or with a good set of headphones. Laptop speakers won’t cut it.
Ok guys, I really hope you’ve enjoyed this review of the Avalon 737. See you next time!
Jake Jones | Founder | LearnHowToSingBetterFast.com | Thank you to Avalon for making great gear