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Program Equalizer and Microphone Preamplifier
Young brain. Old heart. It’s Eighteen.
The Eighteen isn’t just a response to the fanfare of our Seventeen FET compressor — it’s a part of our dedication to create new homages to our favorite vintage products.
Eighteen starts with a vintage inspired preamplifier, providing a creamy, yet punchy response. We’ve topped that off with a passive inductor-based program equalizer, and outputs controls for pushing the analog stages to pure overdriven-bliss that’s still safe for your convertors and DAW.
Eighteen’s preamplifier circuit isn’t just another clone, but an original design built to pay proper tribute to some of the most classic designs ever made. The Eighteen starts with a Cinemag input transformer, but that’s far from where the magic stops. In order to get the absolute perfect sound we were looking to achieve with Eighteen meant a bit more work under the hood. This is where our new BLA1831 custom, discrete op-amp comes into play. Through an extensive period of component matching, we were able to create a custom op-amp that matched the vibe we were aiming for, while still matching a noise floor that is akin to modern equipment. The preamplifier also features polarity inverse, 48V phantom power, an 80Hz high-pass filter, and a 10kHz low-pass filter.
Eighteen packs an impressive, original passive inductor-based equalizer, that you’re sure to love. While creating this circuit, Black Lion's engineers realized that any “off-the-shelf” inductors simply wouldn’t do. That’s why they teamed up with Cinemag to create a custom inductor just for Eighteen!
The results are amazing; a quiet and ultra-flexible equalizer that packs all of the vibe of your favorite program-style EQ’s. Eighteen features 2 bands of EQ, as well as a low-pass shelving filter.
Eighteen's features just don't stop: it also features a custom-wound Cinemag transformer for the output, as well as output gain control for pushing the unit into pure overdriven-bliss. Black Lion Audio designed, engineered, assembles, and tests each unit by hand in the USA.
FEATURES:
- Full-featured preamplifier
- Passive inductor-based program equalizer
- Custom, high-end parts throughout the entire circuit
- Hand assembled and tested in the USA
- Cinemag input transformer, custom Cinemag output transformer
- Custom Cinemag inductor
- Black Lion's BLA1831 discrete op-amps give the preamp the vintage taste you've been craving
- Full-featured preamplifier with line input, 48V phantom power, polarity inverse, 80Hz high-pass filter, and 10kHz low-pass filter
- Program equalizer with 2 bands of passive induction equalization, and low-pass shelving filter
- Output level control for more gain and driving the preamp
- Hand assembled and tested in the USA