The Rupert Neve designs 5211 is a stereo solid-state pre-designed by Rupert Neve that’s a bit of a departure for Rupert Neve designs in that it features a transformerless input stage. This allows you to keep things fairly transparent on the front end, but also allows you the ability to add more color by engaging the silk and texture controls on the output stage. Without the silk circuit engage, you get a very clean, fast and punchy sound. The transformerless input seems to add glue and has faster transient response. With the silk circuit engaged, it starts to sound more like at 1073 style preamp as you turn up the texture control. The 5211 features the custom output transformer from the Shelford and dual tap output, allowing you to drive things for more saturation without clipping. For a more vintage 1073 sound, use the lower voltage output, engage the silk circuit and push the texture control for more saturation. For more modern sound, use the higher gain output. The 5211 also features a sweepable high-pass filter. As with everything Rupert Neve, the fit and finish and build quality is superb.
Rupert Neve 5211 2-Channel Mic Preamp
In this video, Sound Pure pro audio specialist Ted Gasper runs us through the Rupert Neve 5211 2-Channel microphone preamp. We tested it on acoustic guitar, grand piano, and vocals with a little help from Michael Buckley. In this demo, Michael plays “Confession,” a song he wrote and recorded with his band Ekiim Ariara, for their 2015 debut album, “Dead Man’s Song” (available now on iTunes, Spotify and Bandcamp).
Additional Gear Used in This Demo
Goodall Traditional Spruce/Mahogany Dreadnought
Soyuz 013 Tube SDC Stereo Matched Pair
sE Electronics RNT Multi-Pattern Tube Condenser Mic
Millennia NSEQ-2 Stereo EQ
Manley ELOP+ Stereo Electro-Optical Limiter
Lynx Aurora(n) 16-Channel Thunderbolt D/A & A/D Converter