AMS Neve 1073SPX

The Classic

The Neve 1073 is certainly one of the legends in the field of preamps. And indeed, to this day, the 1073 has something magical, something alive. It brings a very unique "sparkle" in the highs. With this and its 80 dB gain, it also fits perfectly with dynamic microphones such as the RE20 from Electrovoice or the SM7B from Shure or, of course, the MD 421 and 441 from Sennheiser. The EQ section is a bit on the edgy and harsh side, but this fits very well for many "louder" productions. Even after about 50 years still an incredible preamp.

Audient ASP 880

British understatement

The Audient ASP 880 is the successor to the very successful ASP 008. As a mobile addition to the extremely high-quality Millenia, Forssell and Prism Preamps the audience is the ideal complement. Its 3-fold adjustment possibility of the impedance and its tunable high-pass filter make it a flexible tool. The audience is more of the neutra side, with very good resolution and a touch of warmth and punch.

The high-quality AD converters of the ASP 880 are based on Burr Brown technology. They make the ASP 880 a great complement to our existing equipment.

DAV BG 8

Der perfect location multichannel preamp

Noble blood flows through the veins of the DAV, because the head of the DAV electronics company is Mick Hinton, who was responsible for the good sound in the DECCA studios for 29 years. For DECCA the outstanding quality of their recordings was upmost of importance. They experimented a lot with with microphone positions and found the DECCA Tree.

The DAV preamps use the circuits developed for DECCA Studios and anyone who knows DECCA recordings has an idea of ​​what this preamp sounds like: transparent, open, free of coloration and still big, a bit larger than life. The BG 8 is light, robust and its gain controls with fixed resistors enable perfect, repeatable stereo settings. A perfect preamp for high quality orchestral and chamber music recordings.

DBX 786

The preamp for larger than life sound

dbx is actually more known for good than for high-end products. But the blue series consisting of the 786 preamp and the matching 160 SL compressor tops pretty much everything that has existed in this area. This rare preamp (as far as we know there are only two other preamps in Germany besides ours) is with its 70 dB gain, its absolute freedom from noise (130 dB) and its special spectrum equalizer (up to 40 kHz) the perfect pedant for high-quality ribbon microphones. Every component is top of the line: The gain control is done via fixed resistors in combination with a finely resolved, high-quality -5 to + 5 db potentiometer, the most expensive metal film resistors with gold-palladium contacts and the best Jensen transformers can be found in addition to polypropylene capacitors, magnetic relays with gold contacts, hermetically sealed with nitrogen. The joy of looking at the innards has never been so great ... Despite its neutrality and precision, the dbx sounds large and extremely detailed and differentiated.

DBX 376

The flexible allrounder

The dbx 376 is a single-channel tube channel strip with EQ, compressor, deesser and digital converter. So this channel strip fits into pretty much any environment. Despite its tube, the dbx 376 tends to sound a bit sober.

Focusrite ISA 428

Ruppert Neves legendary preamp

Focusrite, founded by audio guru Rupert Neve, still manufactures preamps based on the legendary ISA amplifier design. All channels have an output transformer and have their own beautiful sheen in the highs. Nevertheless, the ISA preamps sound earthy and powerful.

Our model has the very good AD converter card. It can convert 8 channels at the same time. The digital signals are available as ADAT or AES/EBU DB 25 format up to 192 kHz.

Forssell SMP-2

Fred Forssell's answer

Developed by audio guru Fred Forsell, the SMP-2 is the proverbial piece of wire with gain. Fred Forssell is no stranger to the high end audio community. To the best of our knowledge, he played a central role in the development of the Millennia M2B design (in our opinion one of the best sounding tube preamps ever) and today he still dares to use the legendary Millennia NS EQ equalizers to make them even better.

The SMP-2 is a two-channel, discrete JFET Class A preamp that has an extrem high-resolution and sounds neutral but beautiful. Its volume control works with fixed resistors and it has a DC-coupled input especially for ribbon and moving coil microphones. Despite the extreme focus on neutrality the Forssell sounds a little warmer than the Millennias.

Millennia HV-3R

High End in 8 channels

The Millennia HV-3R delivers the well-known quality of the Millennia HV-3D preamps on eight channels. It can also be remotely controlled via LAN or Midi. Up to 792 channels can be cascaded and controlled remotely this way. Millennia HV-3 preamps have established themselves in great classical productions due to their unsurpassed technical and musical quality. But also in jazz and pop production, especially on the drum set, the Millennia is unbelievably fun due to its extremely high dynamics. The bandwidth of over 300,000 Hz, 32 dB headroom and THD of only 0.0005% make it the ideal preamp for high-resolution recordings.

Two of our four models have the optional converter card installed. It converts the music signal with perfect quality and makes it available in AES / EBU format at a DB25 port. We do not want to ignore one negative anomaly: All the settings of the converter card can only be set directly on the card using jumpers. Short-term changes to the configuration are difficult to achieve.

Millennia STT1

Der ultra flexxible high end standard

The Millennia STT1 is something like “the best of Millennia”. The Millennia are true quick-change artists. You can choose between solid state paths or tube paths in all stages (preamp, EQ and compressor). Expensive output and input transformers can be switched on as required. Over 130 different configurations can be created. The Millennias always sound extremely clean, stable and in great detail. The integrated parametric equalizer, which works either in tube or transistor circuit, is one of the best sounding equalizers ever. Its bass is pitch black, making the signal dark without smearing. The mids are finely resolved without softening the attack and the highs are actually silky smooth. Our two STT1 have the best sounding original Telefunken tubes (NOS = New Old Stock).

The HV3 transistor circuit integrated in the STT1 is the standard among classic reference recordings. The tube circuit with the name MB2 is also very detailed, with a touch of tube silk. Ideal for vocals.

2 x Prism Orpheus

Musical and ultra clean

We use our two Prism Orpheus primarily for very high quality AD and DA conversion. However, the Prism Orpheus also has four great sounding preamps. These provide clean 65 db gain with no frills but also without noise or distortion. (116dB at +10db gain, which is THD of 0.00016%).

For AD and DA conversion, the Prism, together with its brother ADA-8XR, has set the benchmark for conversion since its appearance. Even with external clocking the Prism is extremely musical and tight due to its Cleverclox.

2 x Prism Orpheus

Musical and ultra clean

We use our two Prism Orpheus primarily for very high quality AD and DA conversion. However, the Prism Orpheus also has four great sounding preamps. These provide clean 65 db gain with no frills but also without noise or distortion.

For AD and DA conversion, the Prism, together with its brother ADA-8XR, has set the benchmark for conversion since its appearance. Even with external clocking the Prism is extremely musical and tight due to its Cleverclox.

Excellent hardware sample rate converters and noise shapers complete the professional device. 8 channels of ADAT format and 2 channels of SPDIF or AES / EBU format are available for additional inputs and outputs, which can be used simultaneously. When our two Orpheus are cascaded, 36 channels are available at 48 kHz. At 96 kHz, it's still 28.

The Prism Propheus are connected to the computer via Firewire as an audio interface. Up to 3 Prism Orpheus can be daisy-chained to a Firewire port. The Orpheus synchronize themselves via the Firewire bus. An external clock is therefore superfluous. On the Mac, the Prism Orpheus run reliably on both the native Firewire port and the Thunderbolt Firewire adapter. In the case of PCs, make sure you have the right Firewire chip

Ramsa DA7

The first great sounding digital desk

The Ramsa DA 7 digital console with its 32 channels is one of the most underrated devices of all. Its pad-free preamps are crystal clear, warm and powerful and surprise with a very high signal-to-noise ratio. When things get tight with channels or real motorized faders are needed for live recording or recording, the Ramsa DA7 comes into play. There are still mastering studios that still work with the DA7. That probably says enough about its sound quality. In our opinion, the DA7 was the first great sounding digital mixer. Transparentg, pad-free microphone amplifiers are installed on the analog side. They sound very neutral, clean, very differentiated and always surprise us with their quality. The converters are Delta Sigma converters with a 24-bit word length and sound a bit soft. All internal effects (32 fully parametric EQs, 32 compressors, noise gates and delays) work with oversampling and are still at the forefront today.

The Ramsa DA7 offers an infinite number of routing and monitor options that make it a Swiss army knife in the studio or in live events. Its modular concept allows each DA7 to run 32 channels in blocks of 8 in ADAT, TDIF, AES-EBU or analog.

Motu 112D

The Audio Interface for die digital world

With its 24 AES/EBU in- and outputs, 24 ADAT in- and outputs, and its 64 MADI in- and outputs, as well as full AVB connectivity, the MOTU 112D, is the ideal connection in a digital production environment. All channels can be routed as desired. USB and Thundebolt provide low-latency data transfer to the DAW.

Motu 828 MKII

Compact, robust and flexible

The Motu 828 is ideal for live recording. Via its ADAT, SPDIF and analog inputs, 20 channels can be transmitted simultaneously into the computer via Firewire. The excellent Motu drivers are trouble-free.

Motu 2408

A device from the very beginning of the digital era and still useful

The Motu 2408 was the first interface from Motu that transmitted 24 channels on the basis of Firewire (but with its own protocol called Audiowire). Today we actually only use the 2408 for format conversion. On ths regard it is still very flexible to this day. ADAT, TDIF and AES-EBU can be routed as required in blocks of 8.

RME Digiface

The interface to the world of ADAT & TOSlink

With its 4 ADAT inputs and outputs as well as two additional headphone channels the RME Digiface is the ideal interface between digital mixing consoles with ADAT interfaces like our DA7 and digital effects units with many inputs and outputs like the Quantec 2496. Legendary is the RME typical stability of the drivers.

RME Digiface AVB

An interface for 256 channels

The RME Digiface AVB enables all AVB audio network devices to be integrated into the computer. Although the Mac supports AVB natively, the use of the Digiface AVB offers Totalmix and thus the convenient, central control of an entire AVB network with 256 channels. For Windows it is the only way to integrate AVB devices into the computer.

RME m-32 AD pro

32 High end channels in one rack unit

We have decided for the m-32 AD pro as a successor or addition to our beloved Prism converter. The RME is convincing all along the line. It sounds fantastic: fast, neutral, defined and transparent. We mainly use it for large choirs and orchestral productions. In addition we love the convenient operation in the web browser. In combination with the Digiface AVB it can be integrated into Totalmix -> great! We hope to seeing more high-end products with AVB network interfaces soon.

RME MADIface pro

Small but wow

The RME MADIface pro is suitable for excellent recordings in mobile setups. On a notebook it provides 32 channels at 96 kHz via USB3 due to the MADI input. On an iPad there are still 24 channels in class compliant mode. The MADIface runs robustly on all platforms. It doesn't require a power supply when connected to a powerful USB port and offers 4 inputs and outputs on the unit for various monitoring options. When connected to the RME m-32 AD pro , a great-sounding and powerful mobile setup is at your fingertips.

RME ADI-2-DAC FS

The mobile mastering grade converter

The new RME converter is ideal for mastering situations. It processes PCM, DXD and DSD streams with up to 768 kHz. Its headphone outputs provide enough power for even the most difficult headphones, with the least distortion and noise. The programmable DSP enables ear-, headphone and room correction equalization and calibrated loudness to compensate for the Fletcher Munson curves.

A fantastic device.