Dick Swettenham’s three transistor microphone preamp design is truly a thing of beauty. The sound of these types of microphone preamps is legendary. You’ve heard it on records made at Olympic studios in the 60s and 70s. It’s now available again in a 500 series format package.
This version features a class-A transistor output stage which will drive the most demanding of loads. This feature is most welcome since the original Olympic microphone preamps were integral parts of their respective mixing desks and never meant to be connected directly to an output.
Other additions include: finer gain steps (5 dB), a high-impedance FET DI, phase reverse switch, and switchable phantom power.
A9031 Specifications
Microphone Input Impedance: 1.2KΩ, balanced
DI Input Impedance: > 3.3MΩ
Output Impedance: less than 50Ω
Max. Output Level: +32dBu, transformer balanced
Gain: 20 to 70 dB in 5 dB steps
Frequency Response: +/- 1 dB from 7Hz to 25kHz
Noise Level: better than 74dB below +4dBu, 0-30kHz
A9031 Features:
· Switch for phantom power
· 20 dB pad
· Phase reverse switch
· High-Impedance DI