DACS MIC AMP 1

DACS Mic Amp 1 Dual Channel Microphone Preamp. Works great and is an amazing sounding preamp. This listing includes the power cord and the preamp. Tested and working excellent! DACS mic amps rival the finest solid state mic preamps on the market. 

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The Mic Amp is certainly a striking piece of equipment. Built into a substantial steel 1U rackmount case, the unit has a lilac-colored ovoid graphic on the front panel, which contains all of the operational controls. The large illuminated red mains power switch is situated on the right-hand side and is vaguely reminiscent of Focusrite's Red modules -- a not unnatural association, as it turns out...

To the left of center, each channel provides four controls and two indicators. The large rotary switch on the left sets the gain in coarse 6dB steps calibrated from +20 to +62dB, and next to it is a much smaller knob providing a continuous gain trim of between 0 and +10dB. This control has 19 markings around it (if you imagine the dial as a clock face, the markings are located on every hour and half-hour position between six and three o'clock), so it's an easy matter to reset a channel's gain to a logged position with remarkable accuracy.

The third rotary control is a three-position switch offering flat (a point I'll return to shortly) or bass roll off from 80Hz or 30Hz, with a gentle 12dB/octave slope. The controls so far described all have a solid feel to them, and look expensive -- a point I'm making only because the last operational control is a cheap-looking toggle switch! In fact, this control (which simply inserts a polarity reversal in the signal path) is far from cheap, with its gold-plated contacts -- but it does look out of place on the otherwise very high-class panel. Perhaps miniature versions of the mains power button would look more the part?

Between the filter knob and the phase switch are two indicators -- at least it looks like there are just two until a signal is passed through the channel, and then you realize that there are four -- the top one is divided into three in a manner reminiscent of the old Mk I Ford Cortina tail lights, or the roaming eye of the Martian ships in the original War of the Worlds film [or a CND sign, for the benefit of our younger readers -- Ed]. The lower indicator (marked with a '!') glows bright red when the channel is overloaded and remains illuminated for a few seconds just to make sure you see it.

One third of the upper, divided indicator is green and indicates the presence of an input signal. The next section glows yellow when the signal reaches +5dBm, and the third part is red and illuminates at +13dBm. Although the metering idea is not new, this arrangement of LEDs is most unusual, attractive, and very effective. Everyone who saw the review machine commented on it, which has to be a good thing from DACS's point of view.

Price $1695 + $45 Shipping in the lower 48 United States