Empirical Lab's Dave Derr is no stranger to creating game-changing audio processors, and his Mike-E preamp is no exception. Mike-E is a modern, digitally controlled microphone preamplifier chocked with unusual features to warm and soften sound sources, plus, it also has an excellent compressor/limiter. Mike-E, a transformer-coupled mic preamp, offers an incredible performance with a noise floor is far below any microphone's self-noise. And, the one-of-a-kind ?CompSat' section is an uncompromising compressor and saturator circuit that offers versatile coloring, and classic knee compression.



Mic Preamp Section
The preamp section is a super low-noise transformer-input amplifier section with gain digitally controlled gain. This section comes standard with a shielded Lundahl transformer, but allows for a Jensen transformer also.

The signal-to-noise ratio far exceeds any microphone in existence; typically over 130dB with the input shorted and 40dB of gain. Having used many mic preamps over the years, Empirical Labs has implemented a unique stepped-gain control that is impervious to the normal flakiness that age causes to pots and detented switches.

Counting the output gain of 14dB, a total74 dB of gain is available to you with the CompSat section bypassed. Phantom power (+48V) is provided for condenser mics.



Exclusive CompSat Section
This unique circuitry is what sets Mike-E apart from all other mic preamplifiers. It has four sections:



1) Saturator: This is a multi-stage soft clipping circuit. At lower levels, triode-type saturation affects the signal. As the level increases, a second unique clip circuit that includes germanium semiconductors starts to flatten ou