History:
Although LAWO was not a pioneer of the first hour like i.e. TAB, Telefunken, Siemens, etc., the 1970 founded company was quickly established on the broadcast market. In the 70´s and 80´s LAWO built some great analog desks. Most of them discrete and with very high quality parts and manufacturing standards. Die LAWO V976/xx mic preamps were build for several years and in several revisions, starting from /0 and going up to /18.
Design:
The LAWO V976/10 has transformer-balanced in- and outputs. The huge Haufe transformers are part of the reason while these amps sound so great and open. The amp delivers 79dB of gain. Gaincontroll is enabled by two dip-switch wheels. One has 10dB steps, the other one 1 dB staps. Gainswitching works with absolutely no crackling, due to a ramp-time of 1-2 sec. A three step rotary switch let´s you choose between PT (OSC.), MIKRO (MIC) and Ltg. (LINE). An Overload-LED plus a 3 step highpass filter complete the device.
Sound:
The V976/10 is a great high quality vintage mic preamp with stunning specss. It´s sound is very natural and open. A little more coloration than the /18 design and very similar sounding than the Neumann V476b. Very good for all acoustic instruments, classical recordings, Jazz, etc. and with 79dB of gain also suitable for ribbon mics. If you are looking for a killer micpre with a little mid frequency coloration, go for the V976/10.
Features:
- Transformer balanced inputs and outputs
- 79dB of gain
- 1 dip switch wheel for 10dB steps
- 1 dip switch wheel for 1dB steps
- Highpass-filter: 40Hz | 80Hz | 140Hz
- Very good THD and low noisefloor
- Needs Tuchel T2701 23-pin connector and 24DC psu (48V DC for Phantom power)