About this pre-amp business
2001-09-23 by Paul Schreiber
a) The preamp is 1U. It has 3 knobs and 6 jacks. b) It has 2 'line level' inputs with a gain of 0 to 10. It has 1 'guitar' input with a gain of 0-150. c) The pre-amp is for AC signals only. It is 'DC servo' driven, with no caps in the audio path but has auto-zeroing outputs. This is how all audiophile pre-amps are designed. d) It uses a 'Larry bracket' mounting scheme: there is a thin stainless steel bracket that is placed behind the 3 pots. e) No mic pre. That's too much a pain, and the sales volume would be small. The MAIN use of the preamp is for gee-tar players. The SECONDARY use is for boosting 1V pk-pk synth outputs to 10V pk-pk or so. It is a straight preamp. No tone, overdrive, etc. I want something CHEAP and EASY. But of course MOTM-type specs (like 0.005% THD). I hope to have at least a prototype for NAMM. Note that my 'real job' is starting to pick up, so it remains to be seen just how much I can design and ship in the next 3 months. Paul S.