179-400 Dual Mix / Mastering VCA Limiter. Description : Originally designed for broadcast material, the dual 179-400 in 1U rackmount guise is a totally unique analog mix / mastering VCA limiter with a character all of its own. It is a versatile and capable addition to any studio looking for that elusive magic touch. As a mastering limiter, the 179-400 allows the gentle shaping of transients giving better overall balance, hitting the digital brickwall limiter in a more detailed and pleasant way, often giving 1 to 1.5dB more punch previously unobtainable out of an already well-balanced track. Less work is required from the brickwall limiter giving a cleaner, more open sounding mix with the addition of detail, rather than the over-compressed destruction of transients and fatiguing boxiness that come from too much gain reduction processed in one stage. The instantaneous soft clipping circuitry uses NTP’s proprietary M510 VCA to achieve forward regulation of the sidechain giving very low static and dynamic distortion. Dual time constants T1 and T2 combine to give a composite recovery curve, greatly reducing dynamic distortion. A custom designed low noise bipolar PSU replaces the positive only supply originally used by NTP. This had a “phantom ground” generated by an op-amp with no negative supply and also used a noisy onboard voltage regulator. This unit has a real earth connection to a high-stability low noise offboard power supply and uses both positive and negative supply voltages. This superior setup reduces power sup. Interesting historic note: In later models c. 1990 the M510 VCA used three DBX2150A VCAs in parallel and a couple of op-amps to process the VCA control voltage and transistor symmetry, while earlier models were much more complicated using only op-amps, transistors and an LED with no VCA chips (twice as many components in total). The DBX2150 later became the THAT2150 and was finally replaced by the ubiquitous THAT2180/2181 currently in production. Gain, Threshold, T1, T2 controls brought out to front panel. Stereo link or dual mono operation. DC meters showing 0 to 5dB gain reduction (customisable range – up to you). Custom low noise bipolar LM317/337 PSU with real earth replacing NTP pseudo-earth positive only supply. Hard relay bypass linking ins to outs. Limit engaged and power LEDs for both channels brought out to front panel. Transformer balanced floating input and output stages (NTP ZFT and Lundahl LL5011). Gotham Audio hookup wiring. 179-400 boards re-capped with Wima and Panasonic FM caps. Molex connectors throughout, nothing hard-wired. Lorlin binary coded switches. Input Gain in 1.5dB steps : 0 to 13.5dB. Output Threshold Level in 1.5dB steps : 3 to 16.5dB. Recovery Time T1 : 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 1, 2, 4s. Recovery Time T2: Off, 1, 2, 4, 10, 20s. Attack time : 1.5ms. Frequency Response 20Hz – 20kHz : -0.5dB. Distortion 40Hz – 20kHz : < 0.1%. Input Impedance : 20 kOhms. Output Impedance : < 40 Ohms. Each unit is built to order and takes from 2 to 4 weeks to build. Both channels are tested exhaustively, matched, calibrated and trimmed for lowest possible distortion and noise. I only build mastering gear now after 15 years of building just about every type of equipment out there. I take great care with each build, down to the smallest detail. If anything goes wrong in the first 2 years, just send it back and I'll fix it for free. Any questions, please contact me, thanks for looking. The item "179-400 Dual Mix / Mastering VCA Limiter Amplifier 1U Rackmount (NTP soft clip)" is in sale since Friday, March 30, 2018. This item is in the category "Musical Instruments\Pro Audio Equipment\Signal Processors & Effects". The seller is "mrshhhh" and is located in Llandrindod Wells. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Number of Channels: 2
- Inputs/Outputs: XLR In
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom
- Effect/Enhancement: Amplifier
- Type: Analog Soft-clip Limiter
- Features: Active
- Brand: Watson Audio
- Form Factor: 1U rackmount