Neumann W491A | creme faced

The Neumann W491A equalizer is one of the later Neumann developments. It was designed in the early 1990´s when customers requested for more channels with full features.  All circuitry for the Neumann W491A’s is high quality and build after the standards of the IRT (Institut für Rundfunk Technik).  Neumann follows a long tradition of fine vintage German mixer modules.  In the beginning these modules were built for radio stations exclusively due to their high factory price. Years later they found their way into recording studios around the world as used and now affordable gear. 

 

The idea behind the Neumann W491A equalizer was to build a balanced eq module in a small, half fader (B1) cassette. To acomplish this, no hi- or lo-pass filters could be added to the design. Still the W491a is quit flexible and a good alrounder featuring three separate active bands with eleven selectable frequencies each and a switchable q-factor per band. You can use the the W491A for tracking, mixing and mastering of mono sources. Due to it´s rotary switches you can also easily pair them and use them for the mix bus or mastering purposes, even though you might miss the hp/lp filters than. We often use the W491a to build a complete 19“ Neumann channelstrip in one of our VT19-1U racks featuring a Neumann V476b mic preamp, the W491A equalizer and the U473 (U473A) dynamics module.

 


The W491Ab is a flexible eq with a relatively clean yet slightly aggressive character. It´s ability to go from subtle filtering to extreme EQ-ing effects, makes the W491A a very powerful tool in a small module. The sound is much more “in the face” than the one of the Siemens Sitral W295b or the Neumann PEa (W495b) eq´s, but you can still add loads of high frequencies without getting any harshness. Punchy!

 

Features:

- Transformer balanced inputs and outputs

- 3-band EQ (switchable in or out of circuit)


- Each band has 11 selectable frequencies with +/-15dB of stepped gain and a 3-way

- selectable Q-switch for narrow, medium, or broad bandwidth
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- High Frequency Band: 1.5K, 1.9K, 2.4K, 3K, 3.8K, 4.7K, 6K, 7.5K, 9.5K, 11.5K, 15kHz

- Mid Frequency Band: 300Hz, 378Hz, 475Hz, 600Hz, 754Hz, 950Hz, 1.2K, 1.5K,1.9K, 2.4K, 3K

- Low Frequency Band: 45Hz, 57Hz, 71Hz, 90Hz, 113Hz, 142Hz, 180Hz, 226Hz, 285Hz, 357Hz, 450Hz


- Extremely wide frequency response beyond 50 kHz


- Low distortion & noise floor