Golden Age Project PRE-73 DLX 73-Style Mic Preamp

This preamp is designed to give you a warm, punchy, and sweet tone right out of the box. However, you can change the tone of your sound source in a variety of ways. A 73-style inductor high-pass filter lets you roll off some low end, while a selectable air-band EQ can give you a bright, expensive-sounding lift around 30 kHz. You can change the overall tone of a miked sound source with the selectable impedance button, which lets you switch between 300 and 1200 Ohms. On the output, you`ll find a selectable pad, placed after the output transformer, so you can drive the character of the pre hard without overwhelming the output level.

This preamp sports XLR-1/4` inputs, as well as dedicated XLR and 1/4` outputs. You`ll find a front-panel 1/4` DI jack for instruments, and this can be selected to either a Hi-Z or comparatively Lo-Z setting to suit instruments and line-level sound sources alike. There`s even an insert path for integrating your favorite outboard processor into the preamp`s signal. The power supply has been kept separate to ensure the cleanest possible signal path.

Key Features at a Glance

• Vintage-style electronics
• No integrated circuits in signal path
• All-soldered, connector-free internal design for the purest and most reliable signal path
• Custom mic input and line output transformers and highpass inductor
• Balanced, fully-floating output can drive a 600-ohm load up to approximately 28 dBu
• Traditional 23-position 1073-style gain switch also functions as mic/line selector
• Combo XLR/TRS mic and line input jacks and separate output XLR and TRS jacks for flexible connections
• XLR/TRS combo jack with gold over nickel plated bronze contacts for mic input
• 80 dB max gain for passive ribbon mics with quiet sound sources
• Switchable impedance on mic input (1200 or 300 ohms); changing load impedance changes mic tone
• -20 to +10 dB line input gain range
• Active instrument input for guitar and bass that passes the signal through the mic input transformer, with selectable input impedance (Hi-Z or 100 kilohms), by an internal jumper
• Switchable phantom power and absolute phase
• Traditional gain switch plastic knob and metal knobs for the other controls
• The phantom power can deliver up to 10 mA according to the specification standard
• 6.8-kilohm phantom power resistors are matched to within 0.1% to maintain good common-mode rejection in the circuit
• Selectable 1073-style inductor based highpass filter at 50, 80, 160, or 300 Hz, with a slope of 18 dB/octave
• Selectable two-position AIR EQ with a boost of about 3 or 6 dB at around 30 kHz
• Insert jack for inserting EQs and other units
• Insert jack can be switched in/out from the front panel
• Internal jumper can select if the insert jack always has an output signal or not
• 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
• Output pad allows the user to add character by attenuating the output signal after the output transformer by -7, -14, -21, or -28 dB for overdriving the output stage and the output transformer by adding gain and then lower the output signal to a suitable level with the pad
• 4-step LED output level meter
• Tantalum capacitors in the traditional positions
• XLR/TRS combo jack is used for the mic input
• Switches on the back panel for 600-ohm output termination and ground lift
• Relays are used to control internal switching for phantom power, mic low-Z, insert, and DI for shorter circuit board signal paths
• Power supply with separate regulators for the audio circuit and the relay and LED circuit
• External power supply to avoid interaction with the audio circuits and transformers