Retro Instruments 500 Series Preamp with 3 12AT7 Tubes. Ready to add some tube fatness? This unit has the perfect set of controls to dial in subtle saturation all the way to full dirt. It's elegant when picking up detail and depth and raunchy when pushed. Amazing unit in excellent condition.

Ships in original packaging, and will be well protected.

The circuit topology of the Sta-Level packed into a single width 500 module. The 500PRE three tube gain stage exhibits the same detail and depth. As with all Retro products, the feeling of the musical performance is delivered with the Retro Instruments 500PRE. Distortion, Noise and Frequency Response of the 500PRE are outstanding; but overload characteristics are not generally revealed by standard measurements. The 500PRE tubes gracefully limit the signal at +18 dBu. Whether you’re just going for clean gain or pushing the 500PRE into overdrive, it won’t ever sound plastic and brittle like solid-state amplifiers can. Transient detail is unrestrained.

The Retro 500PRE doesn’t sleep when you’re done tracking. Use the 500PRE as a high-energy limiter during mix-time. The 500PRE design purposely has the limiter effect of tube amplifiers. You’ll love to use it as a limiter to fatten all kinds of tracks. The Retro 500PRE works within API 500 rack power limitations. Each 500PRE consumes 160 ma of power, slightly above the 130 ma VPR-compliant allocation.