HLabs PRE169 500 Series Microphone Preamp

The HLabs PRE169 is a very versatile microphone preamp. With over 67 dB of gain, it sounds great with all microphones including vintage ribbon and dynamics. The combination of input gain and output level offers a wide range of colors, from a very neutral sound to an old Neve-like character.

Inspired by the legendary Studer 169 mixing console, the PRE169's input stage is a near perfect replication of the original Studer design with its fairly transparent sound with massive gain range. To add more fatness, HLabds put a big Carnhill transformer in the output section - the same you can find in Neve 51-series console - and packed it all in a tiny 500 Series format single-slot module.