TK Audio
TK Audio DP3 Dual Class A Mic Preamp
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TK Audio DP3 is a dual Class A mic preamp and TK Audio's flagship, replacing the DP2. Its hybrid design mixes vintage and modern circuits: the midrange crunch of mid-60s germanium, the low-mid punch and thickness of early-70s British Class A, and the cleaner tone of the 80s and 90s.
Several characters in one signal path
The input is built around a Swedish Lundahl transformer and a high-gain stage with up to 80 dB, enough for quiet ribbon mics. After the HPF you can insert a saturation or a germanium circuit to add harmonics as needed. The Class A stage with a heavy, custom-made Carnhill transformer sits before the output level control, so you can drive the transformer hard without overloading your A/D converters. It also makes the output less sensitive to different load impedances. The eight-LED meter shows internal headroom, not output level.
An instrument that stays plugged in
The 2 MOhm Hi-Z input has its own activation switch, so the instrument can stay connected all session. Direct mode bypasses the input transformer and input stage and feeds the signal straight to the filter and the saturation and germanium circuits with +14 dB of gain, which together with the Class A stage works brilliantly for bass. The sweepable 30 to 400 Hz HPF lets you sculpt the low end precisely.
KEY FEATURES
- Two preamp channels with up to 80 dB of gain
- Lundahl input transformer
- Selectable Class A stage with Carnhill transformer before the output control
- Selectable saturation and germanium circuits
- Sweepable HPF 30 to 400 Hz, 12 dB/oct
- 2 MOhm Hi-Z input with Direct mode
- -30 dB pad, 1600/400 Ohm input impedance, 48 V phantom, polarity
- Eight-LED headroom meter
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Gain: switch in 5 dB steps, 25 to 80 dB (-5 to 25 dB with -30 dB pad)
- Input impedance: 1600 Ohm / 400 Ohm
- Instrument input impedance: 2 MOhm
- DI Direct gain: +14 dB
- Max output level: +26 dBu
- Frequency response: -0.2 dB at 80 kHz electronically balanced, -0.5 dB at 20 kHz with Class A
- THD+N at +20 dBu: 0.007%, 0.01% with Class A, 0.3% with saturation, 1% with germanium
- Power: 115 V or 230 V, 15 VA consumption
