Trident Audio A-Range 500 Preamp

Trident Audio A-Range 500 Preamp

Distilling the legendary A-Range heritage into a compact 500 Series mic preamp is no mean feat, but Trident have done just that with the brand-new Trident A-Range 500. Combining dicrete circuitry with Sowter and Cinemag transformers, the A-Range 500 pre delivers the signature sound of the original with character and musicality. Featuring mic/line and hi-z input, pad, polarity reverse, front panel XLR input, 60db of mic gain plus output gain trim and more, it has everything you need to start capturing beautiful recordings.

The input section of the A-Range® Mic Pre consists of a very high-quality transformer-coupled discrete microphone amplifier and discrete line amplifier designed specifically for professional audio applications. The microphone transformer is custom designed to the exact original Trident A-Range specifications. All outputs of the 500 Mic Preamp run through the output transformer. The microphone amplifier is designed to handle signal levels from –60dBu to as high as +6dBu without needing a separate pad switch. The 15-position combined mic/line gain switch is calibrated in accurate 6dB steps to provide precise matching of either microphone or line level signals. In conjunction with the ‘Output’ level control, very fine adjustment of signal level is achievable. The preamplifier exhibits very low noise while maintaining extremely fast transient response and a frequency response that extends beyond 40kHz. Naturally, best results are achieved when using a high-quality condenser microphone. The microphone amplifier will also bring out the best in dynamic and ribbon microphones.

The first Trident console was designed purely for Trident Studios and was designated the ‘A’ Series. It was hand built to the need of the facilities and designed to be ergonomic. In those days, the integrated circuit (I.C.) had not been invented, so all the circuits used individual transistors (known as discrete design). This and the use of inductors in the lower and upper mid equaliser sections are said to account for much of the unique sound of the ‘A’ Series. From this first successful design was borne Trident Audio Developments Ltd, which went on to become a leading manufacturer of music recording consoles. One of the company’s earliest advertising slogans was ‘designed by recording engineers for recording engineers’.

This became a key component of what made the ‘Trident Sound’ unique. As a recording engineer rather than an electronics engineer, Trident Audio Developments was designed by the engineer’s ears, rather than a textbook of electronic design, and it is this, coupled with over thirty years’ experience that has enabled Trident Audio Developments to develop its own ‘philosophy of sound’ that is Trident’s trademark.

The “A” Series eventually led to the development of the “A“ Range Console, which became the console everyone wanted to work and record on. The “A“ Range was quickly labelled as the best sounding console ever. It should be noted, a large part of this sound, along with the legendary sounding EQ was the unique warm sound of the A-Range’s all discrete microphone preamplifiers.
There were only thirteen A Range consoles ever built back in the 1970’s, and almost all of them have been rebuilt and are still in use today, despite being nearly forty years old. This says a lot about the heritage of these iconic items of recording equipment and the artists that have used them.