The WA273-EQ equally shines in vocals, acoustic/electric guitars, bass, drums, percussion, orchestras, keyboards, and even as a tone shaping tool.
If there’s one style of preamp that professional engineers would unanimously agree has defined the tone of pop/rock records for decades, it would most definitely be the venerable '73-style of mic pre. '73-style preamps have been massively used in recording and live applications for many years and are still considered to be the “Holy Grail” of preamp choices today. The Warm Audio “WA73 Family” consists of single and dual channel '73-style preamps (with & w/out EQ), that each pay careful homage to British audio history.
When we at Warm Audio decided to release the WA273-EQ it was imperative that it met vintage expectation in both design and performance. The tone and sweet character that vintage '73-style mic preamps impart is so unique and familiar, that we had only the pure desire to release sonically accurate reproductions. After years of R&D, careful reverse-engineering, and countless hours of auditioning, the WA273-EQ has been born!
The WA273-EQ is a “Desert Island” boutique preamp, but it can also be classified as a studio and live work-horse. Classic '73-style preamps are known for being versatile tools that work with all kinds of microphones from Condenser, to Dynamic, to Ribbon. With 80dB of gain and a fully discrete Carnhill Transformer balanced signal path, there’s no recording, mixing or engineering task that the WA273-EQ can’t handle.
Warm Audio WA273-EQ Features
- Dual channel, Class A, '73-style British microphone pream with EQ
- UK-made Carnhill transformer
- UK-made Blore Edwards EQ Dual-concentric switch potentiometers
- Hand-wired, hand-assembled
- 80dB of gain - resistor stepped gain switch
- Fully discreet
- Polarity switch
- Additional high band frequency EQ points added (compared to Vintage 1073)
- 4 position inductor-based hipass filter - 50, 80, 160, 300 HZ
- XLR mic inputs (front & back)
- Line level TRS input
- TS send/receive insert jacks
- XLR & TRS line level outputs
- Direct in, instrment input
- Output control
- LED level indication
- 19" rack mountable
- Internal IEC 115V/230V power inlet
- WA273-EQ Dual Channel British Mic Pre + EQ1
- Gain80dB
- Tone ButtonChanges input transformer impedance for varying tone
- Phantom Power48V
- Low band boost/cut 35, 60, 110, 220 Hz
- Mid band boost/cut 360, 700, 1600, 3200, 4800, 7200 Hz
- High band boost/cut 10, 12, 16 kHz
- Frequency Response 20Hz-20kHz +/-.5dB
