Pete's Place "Electrodyne 501" 500-Series Preamp - Used From Pete's Place

The PPA 501 is a 500-series microphone pre-amplifier featuring two-stage gain discrete circuitry and a warm, rich tone. Perfect for everything from vocals to pianos to guitars and drums! It's near impossible to find a source that doesn't sound excellent through the 501.

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What We Think

If you haven't checked out our video content on the 501 pre, that would be a great place to start. This pre is better off being heard than talked about. It just doesn't get more lush and creamy than the electrodyne in the world of solid state preamps. If you're concerned about too many competing tube colors in your signal path, but still want a richness and fullness that you'd expect from a tube pre, stop looking and call us to demo one of these preamps today.

The electrodyne IS capable of cleaning up and being more forward and focused, so it's no one trick pony like so many tube pre's that are out there, but seriously - you get this pre for vocals and instrument tracks that you want to push back in time to an era when everything sounded like a big round hug. That's the magic of this box, and I just count myself lucky that it can also give me a more forward sound when I need it.

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Manufacturer's Description from Pete's Place

The Electrodyne 501 is a two stage discrete transistor, transformer coupled preamp with active DI, using classic 1969 / 1970 design technology. Each amp stage is individually optimized for peak performance using Electrodyne factory engineering notes and selected high performance components identical to the originals. The transformers are made by Electrodyne’s original manufacturer to exacting factory specifications. The active DI circuit presents an almost immeasurable load to sensitive musical instrument outputs allowing incredibly accurate capture of the instruments true tone. The output of the DI circuit is designed to directly connect and interact with the mic input transformer to allow maximum tone options.

Specifications

Maximum Gain: 68db. Adjustable over 50db in 2db steps with two ranges using 20db pad.
Output level control: Infinitely adjustable from 0 (off) to +6db over unity.
Input impedance: Microphone, 50 / 200 ohms selectable. DI, over 7 megohms.
Output impedance: 150 ohms
Distortion: 0.02%typical over entire gain range.
Maximum output: +30db at less than 0.8%thd. (+29.5db at 0.06%thd)
Frequency response: +/- 0.25db, 10hz to 60khz.
Signal to noise: -80db typ, -60db at absolute maximum gain.
Clip indicator: Monitors all three amp stages and illuminates