Samar Audio AL Active In-Line Preamp  From Samar

The AL Active in-line 48V phantom powered preamp is the perfect solution for studios, artists, and engineers whose goal is to make the highest quality recording where sound purity and clarity is essential. It helps customers see more gain, less distortion, and lower noise from virtually any ribbon or dynamic microphone including Samar Audio Design passive ribbons like the high end MF65, VL37, and AL95.

The circuit is based on Samar Audio Design founder Dr. Mark Fouxman’s schematics, which were originally developed for the company’s highly regarded flagship active microphones the MF65A and VL37A. The philosophy “life is in iron” finds itself here the purest way—all gain is achieved by the same high-end signature toroidal transformer used in every Samar Audio ribbon microphone.

Unlike any solid state-based microphone boosting devices, all the gain stage in the AL Active is in the transformer itself, which doesn’t add ANY noise. A sonically transparent and neutral buffer follows the transformer so the signal gets decoupled from the cable and preamp input. The sound passes through the entire signal chain maintaining its original 3D qualities and clarity with no sonic interference. Having an optimal load impedance of 10kOhm, passive microphones like to see for the most open and natural sonics.

Competing devices are built using standard enclosures and are to be used with an extra cable between the microphone and device. This negatively loads a passive microphone, multiplied by the length of the cable, or distance from the microphone to the device. In contrast, because Samar Audio Design makes everything in house, the AL Active's body is custom crafted on state of art CNC machinery and can be plugged directly into the microphone’s XLR connector, bypassing any need for extra cable. With this approach the cable resistance, capacitance, inductance, and all other electronic impurities affecting the sound in an unpredictable way are no longer an issue. The AL Active becomes a physical continuation of the microphone itself making the entire setup effective, sonically transparent, natural, pure, and easy.