Vintage and Modern Tones in One Convenient Package
The SPL502 500 Series Preamp from Swedish company TK Audio delivers huge tones that belay its diminutive lunchbox size. It features a transformerless input stage that yields a clean and transparent sound upfront while allowing you to color your output with one of two selectable stages. There’s a Class A-style output stage that sounds beefier, with loads of low-range to midrange punch evocative of the early ’70s British sound. Or, there’s a cleaner output stage for crafting more modern tones from the ’80s, ’90s, and beyond. Sweetwater studio engineers have found the SP502’s DI mode, coupled with the Class A-style output stage, is perfect for recording bass and that its sweepable HPF lets you sculpt your low end even further. Plus, its switchable Saturation function lets you add even more character by upping the overall total harmonic distortion (THD). Finally, additional controls include +48V, a -30dB selectable Pad, and a polarity flip.
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TK Audio SP502 500 Series Preamp Features:
- Single-slot 500 Series preamp with both modern and vintage circuitry
- Transformerless input stage offers you a transparent front end
- 2 selectable output stages: early ’70s British Class A style or a cleaner sound evocative of the ’80s and ’90s
- Sweepable HPF from 30Hz–400Hz
- Selectable Saturation stage adds extra harmonic content to your signals by raising THD to around 1%
- DI Mode sends hi-Z input directly to the output stage and bypasses the preamp stage (though HPF and Saturation can still be used)
- Other controls include phantom power, -30dB pad, and polarity flip
- Power requirement: +130mA /-130mA
- Input impedance: 2,400 ohm
- Instrument input impedance: 1Mohm
- Max output level: electronically balanced +25dBu, Class A +24dBu DI direct gain: +15dB
- THD+N @ +20dBu electronic balanced output: 0.0008%
- THD+N @ +20dBu Class A output: 0.007%
- THD+N @ +20dBu saturation active: 0.9%
- Frequency response electronic balanced: -0.6dB @ 80kHz
- Frequency response Class A: -0.5dB @ 20kHz
