| For sale |
| List Price : |
1700.00 US |
| Our Price : |
1599.00 US |
| Free shipping in Canada * |
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| Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-E |
| Rental prices ($USD) |
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/ day |
Total |
| 1 day |
41.88 |
41.88 |
| 3 day |
27.92 |
83.76 |
| 5 day |
20.94 |
104.70 |
| 12 day |
13.96 |
167.52 |
| 28 day |
8.97 |
251.16 |
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Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-E
The Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-E is a modern digitally-controlled Microphone Preamplifier chocked with unusual features to warm and soften the source, along with an excellent compressor/limiter.
The Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-E offers an incredible performance transformer-coupled mic preamp, whose noise floor is far below any microphone's self noise. The one-of-a-kind "CompSat" section is an uncompromising compressor and saturator circuit that offers versatile "coloring", and classic knee compression.
Empirical Labs EL9Mike-E's Seven Circuits :
1.Mic Preamplifier with super low noise & stepped gain switching.
2.Built in "Direct Box", called the "Inst In", offers unparalleled distortion, noise, and frequency response when pre-amping instruments.
3."Colored" 80Hz High pass filter emulates the warm low frequency cut of our favorite vintage equalizers.
4.Phase Switch to invert the audio signal 180 degrees.
5.CompSat offers both a musical Compressor/Limiter and a unique tape-like saturation circuit.
6.Emphasis high-frequency emphasis system softens high frequency "pile-ups" and further the creamy color of the Mike-E.
7.Mix Control allows the blending of the Compressed/Saturated signal with the clean unprocessed "Dry" signal.
Mic Preamp Section – This is a super low noise transformer input amplifier section, with the gain digitally controlled. This section comes standard with a shielded Lundahl transformer, but provides for a Jensen transformer also. The signal to noise far exceeds any microphone in existence, typically over 130 dB with the input shorted and 40dB of gain. Having used many mic preamps over the years, we have implemented a unique stepped gain control that should be impervious to the normal flakiness that age causes to pots and detented switches. Counting the output gain of 14 dB, a total 74 dB of gain is available to the user with the CompSat section bypassed. A 48 Volt Phantom power is provided for condenser mikes.
Exclusive CompSat Section - This unique circuitry sets the Mike-E apart from all other mic preamplifiers. It has four sections:
1) Saturator – This is a multi-stage soft clipping circuit. At lower levels, a triode type saturation affects the signal. As the level increases, a second unique clip circuit that includes Germanium semiconductors starts to more severely flatten out the peaks. An LED named "BAD!" indicates harder un-musical clipping.
2) Compressor – This is an uncompromising compressor/limiter circuit that allows detented control of attack and release for easy repeatability. You adjust the amount of compression with the DRIVE Exclusive CompSat Section -This unique circuitry sets the Mike-E apart from all other mic preamplifiers. It has four sections:
3) Emphasis - The Emphasis is actually two circuits that surround the compressor and saturator, as shown in the block diagram. The Pre-emphasis boosts the high frequencies before the compressor and saturator (CompSat), soft clipping them sooner than normal, while a de-emphasis cuts the frequencies complementary after the CompSat. Emphasis has the added perk of improving signal to noise, and is the reason analog tape decks used emphasis to begin with.
4) Mix Control - The modern recording engineer often employs the technique of mixing between the compressed and the dry (or uncompressed) signal. This can often help maintain transients and a sense of dynamic range while enhancing the low level nuances. Mike-E has a built in mix control to submix in the uncompressed signal to the compressed signal. As the user rotates the MIX control from full right to full left, he goes from the full compressed signal to the full dry signal (absent of any compression or saturation).
Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-E's features Mic Preamplifier, Empirical Labs style. With its totally unique features, we think its the 'deepest' and most versatile Mic preamplifier in existence, while still offering ease of use.
Super high performance Mic Preamp section. Transformer Input. The Signal to noise exceeds 130dB… far, far below the self noise of any microphone. There is 74dB of total gain available.
Super Long Life Gain Switching, 5 dB increments in Preamp section, with output pot for fine resolution gain setting. Sealed relays used throughout.
'CompSat' Section that can not only soft-saturate the peaks of waveforms to warm things up, but also offers a world class compressor with detented parameter selection.
Germanium circuitry in the CompSat section to offer new warming characteristics.
One of a kind Emphasis function -tames high frequency pileups while offering frequency dependant saturation. Enhances Mike-E's wonderful tape-like tone.
High performance High Pass filter at 80Hz, 18dB per octave.
Built in Instrument Preamp/Direct box – Just plug a guitar or bass, etc.. into the front panel and the unit will auto-sense it. Voilà! - you have a high performance Empirical Labs direct box. The signal is then passed through the input transformer for some 'IRON' in its sound.
Upgradeable Transformer output option. Three Outputs, including a Class A transformer output to give you an isolated output with the wonderful soft saturation and beefy low end that you get from your favorite vintage gear.
Renowned Empirical Labs digitally controlled analog topology.
Huge 'DISTRESSOR®' knobs with high resolution numbering - For easy readability and repeatable settings. They also go to 10 1/2 .
A 'BAD!' Hard Clip Indicator light – A 'Bad' Clip LED that lets user know he is within .5dB of hard clipping. It monitors many sections of the Preamp for internal clipping.
Two CompSat LED indicators - one 'WARM' and one 'TOASTY' LED, indicating saturation amount.
Locked, calibrated output level - Allows speed in setting record and live mix levels.
Discrete and integrated combination - The best of speed/linearity with repeatability. Hand tested & selected components. All metal film and Roederstein resistors in the audio path - top quality components, most being high temperature military-spec parts.
Switchable 115/230 volt operation - extra fuse provided inside unit.
Extremely useful as a mixdown processor, too. Great for fitting mixes together using the unique CompSat section.
XLR and 1/4 phone ins and outs -XLR fully balanced design, pin 2 hot. Changeable by user to pin 3 hot!
No internal connectors, only high reliability parts and military grade switches and relays. All contacts doubled up for maximum reliability.
Linkable Compressor section
Interface and features found nowhere else.
Hand wired, calibrated in USA. Shipping weight 14 pounds.
Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-E's specifications Freq. Response is 3 Hz to 200 kHz on (No CompSat). CompSat is 3Hz–150kHz. Optional Transformer output is 6Hz–80kHz.
Signal to Noise - 130 dB signal to Noise at 40dB gain. Maximum output is +28dBu.
Distortion Ranges between .0006% and 15% depending on mode and settings.
Transformer coupled Input, Active and Transformer Outputs available. High quality audio caps used internally.
Input Impedance is 600 Ohms. Output impedance is less than 38 ohms. Instrument In has a 330k ohm impedance.
Attack/Decay Ranges .9–100mS attack range. Release is variable from .05 to .5 seconds.
Power Consumption 15 Watts Max.
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