Simple and elegant, the Rupert Neve Designs 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 you 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.


Get a closer look at the features of the RND 5211 mic preamp -- and the story behind it:


Push the 5211's Silk button to engage the red Silk circuit -- reducing 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 coloration/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.

See how Silk works in this video from Rupert Neve Designs:

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.
-… read more SILK/TEXTURE: Pushing the Silk button engages the red Silk circuit.
- 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.

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