Descripción
Black Lion has done it again with Eighteen: an homage to vintage channel strips, featuring a mic preamp with Cinemag transformers and two BLA1831 discrete op-amps, as well as a passive program EQ with a custom Cinemag inductor — all delivering the best of vintage vibes to your recordings!
Black Lion Audio’s Eighteen starts with a vintage-inspired preamplifier — providing a creamy, yet punchy response. They topped that off with a passive induction-based program equalizer and output 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 homage built to pay proper tribute to some of the most classic designs ever made. That’s why Black Lion created the BLA1831: a customized, discrete op-amp created through an extensive period of component testing — creating great vintage tone, while still matching a noise floor that’s akin to modern equipment.
Eighteen packs an impressive, original passive inductor-based equalizer that you’re sure to love — featuring a custom Cinemag inductor made 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’s features don’t stop there: 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.
Program Equalizer and Microphone Preamplifier
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.
Features
• Vintage style preamp section with CineMag input and output transformers and custom discrete op-amps
• CineMag inductor-based 2-band passive EQ lets you boost and cut frequencies simultaneously to add focus on the low end and presence at the top end
• Output control for driving the preamp into rich harmonic saturation without signal clipping
• Additional frequency control with 80HZ highpass and 10kHz lowpass filters
• Switchable mic/line inputs, polarity flip, and 48V phantom power for condenser mics, active ribbon mics, and mic activators
• Attractive backlit VU meter on the front panel
• Internal power supply with AC input and voltage selector
