SPL GainStation 1 Class A & Tube Microphone and Instrument Preamplifier Overview:

The GainStation 1 is a discrete high-end preamplifier that combines Class-A clean gain with high-sounding tube gain and operates with an operating voltage of 60 V.Class-A meets TubeThe GainStation 1 is a hybrid preamplifier consisting of a discrete Class A transistor stage and tube stage. The hybrid design of the preamplifier combines the advantages of semiconductors (high dynamics with low distortion, low noise) with the musical qualities of tube sound (pleasant high/overtone spectrum, beautiful three-dimensionality).The Class A transistor preamplifier is based on our DMPA operational amplifiers, which operate with an operating voltage of +/- 30 V.The preamplifier has a Butterworth Hi Pass filter, polarity inversion, impedance selection, 48 V phantom power and a limiter.Clean GainThe Clean Gain stage is a balanced instrumentation amplifier built with our DMPAs (Discrete Mic Pre Amp, 60 Volt rail). In Class A mode, both end transistors always remain in a conducting state, thus avoiding crossover distortion.With a slew rate of over 100 V/µs, it is capable of amplifying even fast details and high frequencies cleanly and with low distortion.Tube GainThe tube gain stage is equipped with a 12 AX 7 LPS. It impresses with good noise figures and an open and clear sound image.As decoupling capacitor a WIMA MKP type is used, which is very generously dimensioned with 2.2 µF, in order to work clean and powerful also in the bass range. HiZ/Line InputThe instrument input is a discrete impedance converter that also operates in class A mode. The core is a low-noise field-effect transistor, which is ideally suited as an impedance converter due to its very high input resistance.