Black Box Analog Design, an engineer-led design firm dedicated to handcrafted, American-made audio equipment, has announced the official release of the Black Box microphone preamp.
The company has selected Vintage King Audio as its distributor, and is currently taking orders worldwide.
Designers Eric Racy and Robert Wainscott have created versatile piece of gear that enables users to uniquely shape their sound by implementing unconventional methods and such features as an entirely analog audio path, custom, hand wound Cinemag input and output transformers, hand soldered point-to-point wiring, independently controlled Pentode and Triode tube stages (as well as independent Pentode/Triode “Tone Boost” switches), 350-volt linear power supply and the ability to shape the frequency response without the use of an EQ. (Specifications here.)
“As studio owners and engineers, Robert and I collected over 19 types of preamps, ranging from vintage to brand new, in search of a high-end preamp versatile enough to bring out the best in many types of sources and allow us to capture sounds in a way that didn’t require an excess of processing at mix time,” says Racy. “We felt there had to be a better design, which set us down the path of creating it for ourselves. Using our ears to guide us, we created a unit capable of things a conventionally designed preamp isn’t made for, yet maintained a user-friendly interface.”
“I approached the design of the Black Box microphone preamp in the same manner I would set up for a mix session,” adds Wainscott. “I mixed a single tube with everything plugged into a ‘patchbay’ and all the values that shape how the tube works were fluid. Everything from plate voltage to blocking capacitors could be changed in real time, which afforded me the room to perfect the mic pre’s design, resulting in the unit we have today.”
The Black Box microphone preamp (MSRP $2,500 USD) is now available through Vintage King Audio at an introductory MAP price of $1,995 USD.
