New York, NY (August 17, 2023)—Anyone interested in a hardware ’73-style preamp will want to check out the Golden Age Audio Pre-73 MKIV. According to the manufacturer, the Pre-73 MKIV is “bringing back to life the musically warm, punchy, and sweet sound of classic British consoles.”
The single-channel, half-rack-sized unit sports a redesigned user interface, and offers an impressive feature set that allows you to customize its response to match your microphones and DI sources.
The unit can produce a healthy 80dB of gain, enough to run low-output dynamic and ribbon mics and comfortably capture low-volume sources.
The I/O on the Pre-73 MKIV includes an XLR/1/4-inch combo input, XLR and 1/4-inch outputs and a 1/4-inch line/instrument input. A handy 1/4-inch TRS Insert jack on the back panel allows for connecting a compressor, EQ or other processor into the signal chain.
As expected on any preamp, it provides switchable 48V phantom power, a polarity reverse switch, and a (-14dB) Pad. The switchable Highpass Filter offers 80 Hz and 200 Hz settings. Having dual HPF frequency settings is unusual for a preamp in this price range.
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Also uncommon is the switchable AIR EQ circuit. Controlled by a three-way toggle switch, it lets you boost by either 3 dB or 6 dB at 30 kHz.
Additional user customization comes in the form of the LOW-Z switch, which toggles between 1200 Ohm or 300 Ohm input impedances. You can try both settings to find which works best for a given microphone.
As its model name implies, the Pre-73 MKIV is designed to provide vintage coloration, which you can control with the combination of the Gain and Output knobs. The hotter the input Gain is, the more coloration and vice-versa.
According to Golden Age Audio, the unit was designed with point-to-point wiring instead of surface-mount components or integrated circuits. In addition, all the inputs and outputs are transformer-balanced. Power comes from an external power supply that Golden Age Audio says eliminates self-noise.
The Pre-73 MKIV lists for $349.00 and is available now.
