Phoenix Audio Theata Eight Channel Instrument Preamp  From Phoenix

Theata is truly a unique professional audio product which is so unusual in todays audio products market. It's designed for the studio, live & broadcast markets.

As the demand for electronic instruments like synths, electronic drums and sequencers has exploded, the need for high quality amplification has become increasingly critical as well as having the best possible quality instrument pre-amps for guitars & basses or even routing virtual instruments from your DAW. Phoenix Audio is committed to making sure that we maintain the sonic integrity of the instrument whilst enhancing the sound with the very best in modern analog circuitry with a strong nod to our vintage 70’s design background through our custom designed and wound transformers which can add a pleasing color and tone to enhance the instrument's best characteristics. 

When you want to capture every syllable and every single frequency of every single note played you need ultra high impedance input amplification capture as lower resolution impedance simply means you lose the natural wide frequency of your instruments and they become dull and lifeless and often seem flat and 2D sounding, the Theata input amplification allows you to capture everything and then you the ability to modify and sculpt the sound with our Class A discrete output amplifiers and transformers.

The Theata has eight channels and if you see each channel as an individual channel strip then the advantage of active electronics is you can have great control with 30db of gain, this can be used to drive synths to add color and tone or to simply bring levels up like guitars which need extra amplification, it might even be enough gain to power a tube mic or dynamic & condenser mic (with an additional gain clean booster). Each channel has its own dedicated 15 pad for gain reduction, phase reverse and ground lift and to really sculpt sounds or remove unwanted noise rumble, there is a variable high pass filter  with a great number of frequency options to allow great flexibility.

The Theata has huge variety of input and output options, with over 24 inputs and 20 outputs there are eight unbalanced TRS inputs on the front, an eight channel D-sub input connector on the rear panel and a further eight TRS through inputs also on the front, these can be used to present another input source or for real creativity mix another signal with the input & through to create a new mixed sound which can have really exciting results.

On the rear the Theata has 20 outputs, these come in the form of 16 direct D-sub outputs with two dedicated to each channel, then two XLR mix master outputs and two master monitor outs.

But the really exciting part of the Theata is its routing matrix, each channel has its own left and right switching options, these can be used to route any and all of the eight channels to a master bus so that you can sum to the two channel mixing board that is part of the Theata. You can even send a mono signal to a stereo bus which can create some exciting options. When you route your channels to the master bus you allow the eight channels to be summed to a pair of outputs which is free up valuable inputs on your DAW interface or FOH or to essentially mix your instruments, the mixing busof the Theata is a Class A active high gain voltage earth solution.

On the master bus you even more options like the main stereo output, additional left and right monitor outputs and stereo width effect which has the great ability to widen the mix or create a narrow mono mix, this has the ability to create some really exciting sonic opportunities. Also if you want to insert you favorite outboard like your favorite outboard compressors or EQ’s then the master bus has its own dedicated insert send and return connectors and if eight channels aren’t enough for all the instruments then the linking function can be used so two channels can be merged into a 16 channel unit.