In Sound on Sound magazine you’ll find a review of the SPL P8 – eight-channel microphone preamplifer with discrete technology. The complete review is available on Sound on Sound’s website and in the current edition (2/26) of the magazine. Here on our blog we’ve summarized some of the key points for you.
“The P8 delivers an open, transparent sound that allows transient detail to come through cleanly.”
“The circuitry is designed to provide plenty of headroom, with enough gain range to handle anything from hot active microphones to low-output passive ribbon mics.”
“Switching is click- and pop-free thanks to the use of transistor circuits rather than less sophisticated designs.”
“Importantly, it retains a musical character when pushed close to clipping, but its essential function is simply to make the microphone signal bigger rather than to change it.”
“Listening tests with a selection of acoustic stringed and percussive instruments confirmed the sense of transparency; it was almost as if the mic preamp wasn’t there at all.”
“Even relatively quiet sound sources subjected to compression did not reveal any significant noise, and in a typical studio situation the microphone itself is likely to contribute more noise than the preamp.”
“The P8 aims to make itself invisible so that whatever comes out of the microphone reaches its destination unchanged, and in practice it succeeds.”
Conclusion:
“To summarise, the P8 is not about character or warmth. This is a mic preamp built to last and to deliver optimal transparency, combined with high headroom and very low noise.”
“I think the price is very reasonable given the quality of what’s on offer: you get eight seriously clean, capable mic preamps that can do justice to any type of microphone, including passive ribbons.”
