High quality equalizers and microphone preamplifiers are hard to come by in today’s oversaturated market. Luckily there are Empirical Labs EQ and Mic Preamp devices that stand above the competition. The ELQ Lil FrEQ equalizer and EL9 Mike-E microphone preamplifier are constructed from high reliability parts and military-grade switches and relays. They’re also hand wired and calibrated right here in the United States! The EQ gives you all the sound shaping tools found in professional audio engineer tool kits, while the mic preamp features a lower noise floor than any microphone’s self noise!
Let’s take a look at these Empirical Labs EQ and mic preamp devices!
Empirical Labs ELQ Lil FrEQ
This compact, single rack space box offers equalization and other sound shaping tools. Eight sections of processing ensure you’ll have more than enough to tweak and tailor your sound. Processing sections include a High Pass, four sections of Parametric EQ, High and Low Shelving and a DS/Dynamic EQ. Not only does the ELQ Lil FrEQ have a Master Bypass switch, it has a dedicated bypass switch for each processing section! This Empirical Labs EQ provides you with professional performance that can’t be matched by digital equalizers when it comes to distortion and noise. No existing A/D (analog to digital) converter produces such low distortion and noise.
The front panel of the ELQ Lil FrEQ utilizes Distressor-style knobs for I/O parameter control. Smaller knobs control various aspects of the processing sections. There’s also an Instrument Input that lets you plug in a guitar, bass or other instrument. Just plug in and flip the Instrument switch and you have a high performance direct box! Every section of the equalizer is monitored for internal clipping. A “BAD!” hard clip LED indicator lets you know when you’re within 1dB of hard clipping. Input and output connectors are a combination of XLR and 1/4″ phone.
Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-E
This high performance, transformer-coupled mic preamp has a noise floor lower than any microphone’s self noise. A unique compressor/saturator circuit gives you classic knee compression and versatile tonal coloring. The circuit in the EL9 Mike-E mic preamp is powerful enough to replicate the best characteristics of vintage analog recording equipment. The ultra low noise transformer input amplifier section gives you digitally controlled gain parameters. This piece of hardware also has a “BAD!” hard clip LED indicator, a front panel Instrument input and the same I/O connectors as the ELQ Lil FrEQ.
Specialized CompSat circuitry makes this Empirical Labs device unlike any other microphone preamplifier. Four unique circuits (Saturator, Compressor, Emphasis and Mix) ensure you get the most out of this single rack space device. Saturator is a multi-stage soft-clipping circuit. Compressor is based on the famous Distressor model. Emphasis is a two-stage circuit that boosts and soft clips high frequencies before the CompSat circuit and then cuts all frequencies following it. Mix provides a parallel compression technique created by mixing between the compressed and uncompressed signal.
Trak Pak
There’s also the Empirical Labs Trak Pak, which is a combo package that bundles the EL9 Mike-E and ELQ Lil FrEQ together, effectively making a channel strip!
For more information on any of these products, send us an email at sales@muzeekworld.com!