Golden Age Project Pre73 MKII Microphone Preamp - (New)

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Price: $349.99    

Product Feature

• Vintage Style electronics with no integrated circuits in the signal path
• 80dB Max gain easily handles passive ribbon mics with quiet sound sources; -20 to +10dB Gain range on the Line input
• Switchable 1200 or 300 Ohm impedance on the mic input
• Switchable phantom power and absolute phase

Product Description

With circuitry based on the venerable Neve 1073 preamp, considered among the best-sounding preamps of all time, the Golden Age Project PRE-73 MKII version delivers the same vintage sound with lower noise and wider dynamic range. It also features a rear-panel 1/4" insert send/return jack, plus the gain control now operates clockwise for higher gain.The Golden Age Project PRE-73 Mk2 is the first one-channel low-cost preamp on the market that is using a fully discrete signal path with three separate transformers for the balanced mic input, the line input and the output.The circuit is very similar to the classical preamp section of the Neve 1073 pre/eq module with a corresponding sound character that is warm, punchy, sweet and musical. This classical sound has been heard on countless recordings through the years and it is a versatile sound that works very well on most sound sources and in most genres.The PRE-73 has a maximum gain of 80dB on the mic input and the gain range on the Line input is -20 to + 10dB. There is also a high-impedance instrument input.The PRE-73 is perfect for almost any signal source, no matter if its a microphone with a high or low sensitivity (like a passive ribbon mic), a syntheziser or sound module or an electric guitar or bass.The input impedance of the microphone input can be switched between 300 and 1200 ohm, which makes it possible to affect the tone of most microphones. There is also phase switch and an simple 4-step LED signal level meter.The output level control makes it possible to make fine gain adjustments and also to overload the main gain stage for more character and then lower the signal to a suitable level before the output stage.

Golden Age Project Pre73 MKII Microphone Preamp - (New) Review

I mainly record voiceover, violin, and other acoustic instruments. To give some context, I use a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP as my primary audio interface. The Focusrite has decent pre-amps but they lack somewhat in terms of gain. And while they sound generally transparent, they often seem sort of sterile and the higher frequencies sometimes distort slightly--not obviously, but enough that the discerning ear can pick it out on an individual track. In terms of microphones, I'm working with a Rode NT1a, Rode NTG-2, SM-58, and a Golden Age R1 Mark iii active ribbon.

To further disclose, while all of this is pretty low-end gear for recording, I have worked with some slightly higher-end gear including a Universal Audio channel strip, Digi 003 interface, Neuman TLM-103 and a few boutique tube microphones. These are not my regular tools but they have given me a frame of reference.

The Golden Age Pre73 Mk ii fixes both of the issues I cited for my recording projects (gain and high frequency harshness/distortion). It definitely adds some color--nice warm lows without becoming boomy, and retains clean, clear highs without adding any harsh high frequency distortion. To my ear, this sounds as good as the UA pre-amp. And while it will not fix the deficiencies of my low-end microphones, it cleans up my signal chain quite nicely and makes working with the deficiencies of the mics easier to manage. For example, the Rode NT1a is a very harsh sounding mic in the higher frequencies and has this nasty tendency to over-emphasize higher frequency sounds (like most relatively inexpensive large diaphragm condenser mics). Those issues seem to have mellowed nicely with the Pre73, without loosing intelligibility or clarity because it handles the higher frequencies more gracefully when I keep it at -50db gain which is still on the first gain stage.

The additional gain allows me to record with dynamic mics much more gracefully. Additional color is added on the second gain stage but it still produces a very clean, warm sound.

There are several people that will also upgrade the electronic components in the Pre73 claiming an even cleaner sound though I'm hard-pressed to imagine how that could improve this stock unit. Even after listening to a lot of sample files comparing the stock and upgraded units, I'm still not hearing the difference on decent monitors (KRK Rokit 8 G2s) or good headphones (Beyerdynamics DT 770). But the option to upgrade the components always exists if I find that becomes an issue in the future.

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase--it was worth every penny!

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