Rupert Neve Designs - 5211 2-Channel Microphone Preamplifier

Simple and elegant, the 5211 is the natural evolution of what is arguably the most famous gear in audio recording history: Rupert Neve's microphone preamps. With two channels of the classic tone users know and love, 72dB of gain, sweepable high-pass filters for precise control, and the power of Mr. Rupert Neve's dual-tap transformers with variable Silk saturation, the 5211 delivers a versatile, flattering, and uncompromising front end for any signal path. In short, it's everything a mic preamp should be.

Features

Mic Gain
A 12-way precision rotary switch controls gain from 0 to 66 dB in 6 dB steps

Trim
Continuously variable +/-6 dB level control

Silk/Texture
Pushing the Silk button engages the red Silk circuit, which reduces the negative feedback on the output transformer, adding harmonic content as the texture is increased. Red Silk accentuates the saturation in the mid and high frequencies, similar to that of the red silk mode on the Shelford Channel. By manipulating the Texture control, the amount of Silk can be changed from essentially absent, to roughly 10 times the amount of colouration / distortion found in Silk from the original Portico Series. With Silk / Texture engaged, the distortion characteristic and harmonic content of the unit are very reminiscent of many of Rupert's vintage class-A designs

Level Meter
An eight-segment LED bar-graph meter displays output level (pre-Silk). from -30 dBu to +22 dBu

Polarity
Reverses the polarity of the input signal

High Pass Filter
Continuously variable from 20Hz to 250 Hz, and engaged with the HPF button

Phantom Power
Provides 48V phantom power to microphones

-6dB Output
A secondary split off the output transformer with a lower headroom, designed to allow engineers to fully drive the output of the 5211 without clipping converters and other devices