Golden Age Project PREQ73 Premier Microphone Preamp & EQ

The Golden Age Project

The Golden Age Project was founded in 2005 on the belief that vintage gear sounds best, and the desire to pass on this sonic legacy to a new generation of musicians, engineers, and producers. All-discrete, Class A signal paths with no integrated circuits; the use of transformers, stepped controls, and military-grade build quality; these are the cornerstones of the legendary British equipment deployed in world-class recording and broadcast studios in the 1970s — the Golden Age of analog. Fat, warm, punchy, and authoritative, this is the sound heard on countless hits for nigh unto half a century. Locating, purchasing, restoring, and maintaining vintage gear is time-consuming and costly. Fortunately, this small, family-owned Swedish company makes gear the same way it was made back in the day — at an amazingly gentle price.

A distributor of high-end studio equipment for many years, Golden Age Project founder Bo Medin wanted to be able to offer products with much of the same exclusive sound in a price range that made them available to a larger audience. Inspired by original designs, Golden Age uses modern technology to re-create that lush, opulent sound, making it surprisingly affordable. They use some modern ingenuity to add new functionality to superb classic designs and produce them in a cost-effective way which allows them to be both optimized and affordable. Suhavimart’s advice: From outboard equipment to condenser, dynamic, and ribbon mics, you can outfit your entire studio with vintage-inspired Golden Age gear without exceeding your budget.

Golden Age Project PREQ73 Premier Mic/Line/Instrument Preamp/EQ Features:

• Vintage-style Class A electronics with no integrated circuits in the signal path
• 80dB of gain, enough to handle passive ribbon mics with quiet sound sources
• 23-position Line/Mic gain switch with 5dB steps and a gain range of 20db–80dB for mic and -10dB–20dB for line
• 2-band LF (±15dB) and HF (-20dB) shelving equalizer with two selectable frequencies for each band
• Inductor based —15dB midrange EQ section with three selectable frequencies (lowest selectable between 350HZ and 700Hz)
• Switchable impedance in mic mode, 1200 or 300 ohms, will change the tone of most mics
• Input impedance in line mode is 10k ohms
• Switchable 48-volt phantom power and absolute phase (polarity)
• High-impedance instrument input for any sound module, electric guitar or bass
• Simple but effective 4-step LED output level meter
• Output level control for fine gain adjustments and intentional overload of the main gain stages for additional vintage character
• Separate combo XLR/TRS jack for the Mic and Line input
• Separate output XLR and TRS jacks for flexible connections
• Selectable 600-ohm output termination
• Classic-style knobs and buttons
• Prepared for mounting 1 or 2 units in optional Unite Premier rack kit
• May also be mounted with red/black Golden Age Project units in optional Unite rack kit
• Connector-free internal wiring; all connections (except the ones to the gain switch) are soldered for the purest signal and most long-term stable signal path
• UK-made Carnhill microphone input and line output transformers
• The PCB is prepared for optional Carnhill 9046M line input transformer
• Polystyrene capacitors in the amplifier circuits
• Tantalum capacitors in the signal path
• Beefy power supply
• Sturdy toggle switches with gold-plated contacts
• External power supply avoids interaction with audio circuits and transformers
• Solid build quality for long-term reliability