Rupert Neve Designs has announced the 5025 Dual Shelford Mic Pre, a limited edition of 300 units of atwo-channel microphone preamplifier based on the Shelford Channel.

Like Neve’s designs from his time in Little Shelford, England, the Dual Shelford Mic Pre uses custom step-up transformers on the microphone inputs to provide the first 15dB of gain. ‘While the majority of the harmonic richness found in Rupert’s designs is a product of the output transformer and surrounding class-A amplifiers, this custom step-up input transformer also imparts a unique musical enhancement of its own,’ the company says. ‘This is primarily a result of its reactive impedance characteristic and how that interacts with the connected microphone, resulting in subtle, non-linear harmonic enhancement of the lows and an unmistakable sweetness in the high frequencies.’

The Dual Shelford Mic Pre also features 72dB of low-noise class-A gain, a sweepable high-pass filter, the company’s well-known Silk Red and Blue circuit for two flavours of customisable harmonic saturation, and the dual output level transformers originally developed for the Shelford Channel. The -6dB output from these custom transformers allows the engineer to hit the ‘sweet spot of the output stage more easily, adding harmonic character without clipping the next device in the chain.

The Dual Shelford Mic Pre is now shipping worldwide, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US$3,999.

More: http://rupertneve.com