Atlas Pro Audio Juggernaut Pre-Amp Review

[nemisis633]

It isn’t that often that you find a mic-pre to really get excited about anymore. There have been so many crowding the market in the last few years that my response is usually less than enthusiastic. I’m probably your typical project studio owner. I’ve got my rack of pres that I’ve accumulated over the years and in my mind don’t really need to be looking for anything new. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?

A few months ago I received an e-mail from Nathan Eldred at Atlas Pro Audio, asking me if I would be interested in testing his new pre-amp offering, The Juggernaut. Being a Gearslut at heart, I couldn’t help but say yes, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “There is no way I’m spending any more money on another mic pre.”

I had almost forgotten about being in the test group for the Juggernaut when UPS dropped the package off at my door. I was in the middle of a session but couldn’t help but open the box and peak inside. Build quality on this unit is great, the de-tented controls feel extremely solid, and aid in quick recall of settings, also the button setup is pretty slick. The LED lit switches enable you to see exactly what’s engaged from across the room. The clip light worked in a similar manner.

The first test of the pre-amp was on a drum session. I had my old reliables on snare drum. My go-to is the Vintech X73i and if I want something a bit different, I just route the snare over to the Great River MP-2NV. These 2 pretty much serve me well in every circumstance. I had actually already tracked 5 songs when I brought the Juggernaut into the mix. Without mentioning anything to anyone else in the room, I patched over to it and started working. It immediately offered such an improvement, that the artist and drummer commented on the sound after the first pass. So much for a subtle change. I would describe it as a bit faster compared to the X73i, but also a little fatter, and less blocky. I found the best success with the Iron transformer in this situation, and the THD switch engaged. The clip light flashing here and there didn’t yield any audible distortion, just a more saturated (and better!) sound. Don’t be afraid to have it blinking now and then.

The second area I put this thing through the test on was bass. I wouldn’t describe this thing as even slightly clean with the iron transformer engaged. I was able to pull more growl out of it than even the Great River. I’ll let you judge for yourself though. Below are sound clips of various pre-amps.

The setup was as follows: Fender American P-Bass, Pre-Amp, Atomic Squeeze Box, Apogee AD-16X. I didn’t change any settings on the squeeze box from take to take, and adjusted the gain on the pre-amp to where I was seeing 4-5 dB of gain reduction.

Great River MP2-NV

Mercury Audio V72

Atlas Juggernaut (Iron Transformer)


On the overall the final outcome of this demo was extremely positive, The nickel transformer didn’t really do to much for me personally but I really typically prefer a more colored sound and it does give the pre a lighter, more gentle side.

This isn’t really a pre-amp I would recommend for a clean scenario, but when it comes to color, between the variable impedence, THD switch, and 2 transformers, this thing offers a freakin’ rainbow. My Vintech will be on the classifieds soon if anyone is interested.

Cheers,
Jon King

Producer/Engineer
Smoking Gun Recording Inc.
Nashville, TN

[gm5k]

Originally Posted by nemisis633

This isn’t really a pre-amp I would recommend for a clean scenario, but when it comes to color, between the variable impedence, THD switch, and 2 transformers, this thing offers a freakin’ rainbow. My Vintech will be on the classifieds soon if anyone is interested.

Cheers,
Jon King

thanks for sharing

I also demoed this unit recently and I can't WAIT to receive my pair

for the sessions I used the Juggernaut on, i preferred Iron for electric guitar, outside kick, and bass DI(im getting deja vu hearing your bass DI sample ) however, i found the nickel setting to be very appropriate for the vocalist we were recording. the iron was more edgy here, but i thought the smoothness of the nickel better matched his soft, smooth voice. it was really an amazing combination

[nemisis633]

I really wish I was going to have a chance to try this thing out on vocals, but I'm in the middle of a ten song project and really wanted to use it on all the bass tracking before I had to send it back. (SHH!) I can imagine the nickel would certainly be appropriate in some situations.

[bexarametric]

I'm on this list for two. This builds confidence.

[moracspace]

I expected no less from Nate

[gm5k]

Originally Posted by moracspace

I expected no less from Nate

absolutely, and don't forget the man behind the scenes, Tim Farrant here's a post where he briefly talked about the design of the Juggernaut.

Atlas Pro Audio Juggernaut 500 series preamp

[bexarametric]

The official release for this should be:

"I'm the Juggernaught B!TCH!!!!!!!!"

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click the link below.

YouTube - I'm the Juggernaught Bitch!

[futur2]

Originally Posted by nemisis633

I really wish I was going to have a chance to try this thing out on vocals, but I'm in the middle of a ten song project and really wanted to use it on all the bass tracking before I had to send it back. (SHH!) I can imagine the nickel would certainly be appropriate in some situations.

bass sounds impressive in comparison. if there were some vocals samples compared to reference pres (like your great river and mercury examples) that sounded similiarly good i guess i would be in.

[nemisis633]

Originally Posted by futur2

bass sounds impressive in comparison. if there were some vocals samples compared to reference pres (like your great river and mercury examples) that sounded similiarly good i guess i would be in.

Let me see if I can squeeze that in ;)

[indie]

That sounds awesome.

[pan60]

i have a soft spot for colored pres: )~ i am looking forward to getting one of these in!

[futur2]

Originally Posted by nemisis633

Let me see if I can squeeze that in ;)

[NathanEldred]

Thank you for the great review Jon, it was a very nice surprise! It's flattering to be included in the same group as such respected hi quality gear like Great River and Mercury (I've got both of those preamps in my own rack). I think all three tracks sound great! I think I'll be buying a P-bass this month too (5 string).

[Tube World]

There are a lot of great pre's out there, but it seems that if you want a really big, larger than life sound, the Juggernaut is the one to get. (The Juggernaut is also one of my favorite superhero villians who fought the X Men by the way.)

Question I have is, does the pre always give you that huge sound? Though great as it sounds, this amount of biggness is not always desired.

[nemisis633]

Bear in mind I was dialing it up for that kind of large than life tone. Thats the very thing that I love about the Great River and also saw indulged in the Juggernaut, albeit even more aggressively. If you don't drive it hard, it doesn't swell up nearly so much.

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by Tube World

There are a lot of great pre's out there, but it seems that if you want a really big, larger than life sound, the Juggernaut is the one to get. (The Juggernaut is also one of my favorite superhero villians who fought the X Men by the way.)

Question I have is, does the pre always give you that huge sound? Though great as it sounds, this amount of biggness is not always desired.

You can make it sound 'big', or you can make it sound more 'focused' depending on the setting (for instance I've found that 300-1200 ohms makes things more mid focused with most mics; ribbons, dynamics, and transformer output condensers). Once it gets into the 4000+ohms range, depending on the mic, it starts to become 'big' sounding. By putting in the features that effect the sound so much, in the right places in the circuit, is what does this (Tim's the man).

The sound of the DI is what you've heard here, if you use an external passive DI (like a simple and inexpensive Radial, etc) you can take advantage of the switchable transformers, the VERY wide impedance variation, and pad on the output, to get mutiple textures and tones. Also, if someone wants a little less coloration overall, they can put the optional nickel core transformer on the output (comes standard with iron core on the output which is what you hear here) in combination with the nickel input setting.

[James 'LA' Lugo]

I think Nathan's getting one out for our 500 pre shootout:
500 Series Preamp Shootout Saturday April 12th.

[zvenx]

Originally Posted by NathanEldred

The sound of the DI is what you've heard here, if you use an external passive DI (like a simple and inexpensive Radial, etc) you can take advantage of the switchable transformers, the VERY wide impedance variation, and pad on the output, to get mutiple textures and tones. Also, if someone wants a little less coloration overall, they can put the optional nickel core transformer on the output (comes standard with iron core on the output which is what you hear here) in combination with the nickel input setting.

Ok this is going to be a very silly question, but I understand very little about microphone pre-amps topology etc.
But basically if I plug in my bass guitar in the front DI, I don't get access to the nickel/iron input transformer options, the impedance variation and the THD? I need a passive DI for that? Ironically one of the big selling points for me buying this is specifically for my bass guitars and guitars instead of buying a RAdial for my MA-5.
I was thinking it would be cool instead of buying a DI for $200, buying this for $800 and having access to a whole heap of tones for my bass and guitars.

thanks
rsp

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by zvenx

Ok this is going to be a very silly question, but I understand very little about microphone pre-amps topology etc.
But basically if I plug in my bass guitar in the front DI, I don't get access to the nickel/iron input transformer options, the impedance variation and the THD? I need a passive DI for that? Ironically one of the big selling points for me buying this is specifically for my bass guitars and guitars instead of buying a RAdial for my MA-5.
I was thinking it would be cool instead of buying a DI for $200, buying this for $800 and having access to a whole heap of tones for my bass and guitars.

You'll have whole heaps of tones from your bass or guitars regardless of whichever way you use it. With the front quarter DI, you are going to get the sound of the bass you hear above in Jon King's sample, which I think you'll agree has a lot of coloration and growl. You can still use the +THD output PAD. This sample is through the front DI jack. The DI on the front jack itself goes through the iron core OUTPUT transformer (or the nickel core if you install that). It does not go through the MICROPHONE input transformer(s), so it is not switchable via the front push button by accessing the front 1/4" jack as an instrument direct input, only in the way I've indicated in the sentence above. It's not the norm from what I see of most 500 series preamps, for the 1/4" input to go through the microphone input transformer. Great River does this (which you can hear above), OSA uses a 3rd transformer for the DI, but most go straight to an op amp (ours is Class A and discrete FWIW).

You don't NEED a seperate DI box to use it as a DI, as mentioned above it's going to sound great (proof is Jon Kings sample IMO, and you can hear in comparison to other top end preamps), but for those who want to squeeze every last drop of flexibility out of the options that are used for the microphone input (i.e. 41 impedance settings and two switchable input transformers), then an external box will be required to go through the microphone XLR input. In order to use the impedance the Juggernaut has to see a microphone load, which is what a passive DI will do. I'm not sure if you'd want to run your DI at a really low impedance anyhow, I think 4000 ohms or much higher is best. If someone buys a Juggernaut from us, and wants a Radial DI I'll give them the hookup on the DI in the bundle. The Radial 'PRO DI' has a custom transformer output and is only $89 regular price. But again it's not necessary with the Juggernaut for kick ass DI sounds, as doing that is some serious icing on the cake.

[zvenx]

thanks I follow you now.
I remember seeing two Juggernaut bass samples,one called iron and one called nickel. But there is only one now. How come?
When you say the hook up on the DI what do you mean? I assume you mean a good price.
I think the one I would want, based solely on recommendation from avedis's website is the jensen equipped passive DI. Anyway will cross that bridge closer to the time.
thanks for the explanation.

rsp

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by James 'LA' Lugo

I think Nathan's getting one out for our 500 pre shootout:
500 Series Preamp Shootout Saturday April 12th.

Hi James, the Juggernaut is on it's way to you. Thank you for including us.

[TocaLaGuitara]

I am definitely looking forward to hearing the results of the shootout. I loved the sound of the bass running through the Juggernaut in the earlier clips, but I'd like to hear some more samples on various sources. If the results are as good as I'm predicting, then the search may be over for my next pair of pre's.

[NathanEldred]

There will be 4-5 demos floating around the country in about two weeks so if you'd like to try before that's completely possible. But the $150 discount special is only on the first 50 (there are about 20 of those still available). Thanks.

[NathanEldred]

Good news, the first batch of Juggernauts are shipping later today from New Zealand to us in Florida, so we should see them around mid week coming up. There are enough to fill everyones pre order, and a few left for new orders. More will be coming in about two weeks.

[NathanEldred]

Juggernauts have arrived!!

[pan60]

[James 'LA' Lugo]

Nathan,

I'm gonna use the Juggernaut this weekend and try and post the mp3's. I'm sorry about the delay but it is slammed over here, hoestly I can barely even do this but you're my bro and I want people to hear your gear. You rock!

James

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by James 'LA' Lugo

Nathan,

I'm gonna use the Juggernaut this weekend and try and post the mp3's. I'm sorry about the delay but it is slammed over here, hoestly I can barely even do this but you're my bro and I want people to hear your gear. You rock!

James

Thank you James, no worries. You've been working extra overtime on all these samples lately. Please keep the one you have for as long as you need it and however long it takes to make things consistent. Thanks again!