Thermionic Culture has announced the Earlybird 4, a 4 channel all valve preamp using a Class A bias valves in a push-pull circuit. Company founder and chief designer Vic Keary believes that “this is one of the finest pre-amplifiers available today“.
Specially designed Sowter transformers the Earlybird 4 boasts well under .01% distortion, a Vic explains that “it’s like connecting a pair of wires with gain to your mic, it’s so clean!” It has a very high output level of +32dB and if desired, 2nd order harmonics can be introduced by increasing mic gain and reducing output gain. The unit has switched gain controls with a maximum of 62dB of mic gain and a variable output along with pads, phase, 300 & 1200 ohm impedance and stepped filter. A pair of meters can be switched between 1 & 2 and 3 & 4.
Pricing and availability for the Earlybird 4 will be announced at a later time.