Proudly made in Seattle, Washington, USA, the 7603 is Chameleon's flagship pre-amplifier, representing a leap forward in analog design, performance, versatility and value. It is the true embodiment of Chameleon Labs' philosophy: analog for the digital age. Its fundamental design architecture retraces the path of revered, classic pre-amps of the past as well as Chameleon Labs' popular 7602.

Marcelo at Chameleon Labs gives you an in-depth look inside the 7603 preamp's design:


Engineers at Chameleon have worked tirelessly in developing pivotal components that take the next step forward in performance. These enhancements start with all-new proprietary microphone and line-level input transformers that feature custom-made nickel laminations and bobbin assemblies -- all designed in-house. By developing new engineering processes focused on the material science associated with lamination manufacturing, Chameleon was able to develop a lamination "recipe" that delivers optimized audio performance, providing the 7603 with high bandwidth and incredibly low distortion.

Design of Chameleon Labs' new transformers was based around the need to capture and preserve the delicate audio input signals' truest form, and so they are enclosed in high permeability MuMetal enclosures, designed to protect sensitive audio signals from radio frequencies, spurious and parasitic noises.

Once your audio exits the input transformer, Chameleon Labs' circuit boards are carefully crafted… read more to ensure the highest possible signal integrity. As a starting point, Chameleon Labs developed a new discrete audio input gain stage based on their vision for a solid topology that provides extremely low noise, high dynamics and extreme bandwidth. All of the 7603's operational amplifiers used throughout the device are based on this topology.

The 7603 features EQ stages with four different available adjustments -- Variable High Pass, Low Frequency Shelving, Mid Frequency and High Frequency Shelving. Chameleon engineers made a conscious decision to stay with the same, desirable, inductor-based topology that made the 7602 so popular -- however, they implemented a new discrete Op Amp to drive signal through a new set of custom Chameleon designed and manufactured inductors, providing the musicality you'll love.

Features:

- Chameleon wound microphone and Line Input transformers and Chameleon output transformer, all with mu-metal housings
- High resolution, low noise discrete audio circuitry
- Hi-Z Direct Instrument Input (TRS)
- Discrete Class A Electronic Topology
- Three band, inductor based EQ
- 48V phantom power for mic input
- Selectable 300Ohm or 1200Ohm Mic Input Impedance
- Custom VU meter (input/output) with calibrated ballistics
- Relay based selection of Line / Mic & DI Inputs
- Overload input and output indicators
- Reverse Phase Switch
- Universal, on-board power supply
- Proudly made in the USA in Seattle, Washington read less