LOMO tube Mic preamps

[DJamesGoody]

Hey all, I just installed a pair of Lomo -tube- mic preamps in my rack. I bought them from Chip Verspyck @ Tech It Out. The unit costs $2300.00 (US)

(http://www.studiomaintenance.com/ForSale.html)



Chip does studio tech work and custom maintenance, for studios in upstate NY. He got a bunch of these preamps late in 2005, and started building full-on, rackmount enclosed pairs. What follows is sort of an informal review of them. It's a bit long, but I think it's worth the read........

Sometimes I find myself looking at my rack and feeling uninspired. I have quite a bit of nice gear, but even with a Neve desk in front of me, I somehow always want more color in my mic preamp collection. Well sometime last year, I got wind of the Lomo tube preamps that Chip Verspyck was building here in the Hudson Valley of New York. When I first saw them, I wanted them immediately, just for cool factor alone. I have a large and growing collection of Soviet mics, like Lomo, Oktava, AEG, and Kinap, so I was all too curious to hear these things and put them to work. I ordered Chip's rackmount preamp in late 2005, and just installed it this past week.

LAYOUT
Firstly, this box is heavy duty. The 3 rack space chassis itself is very sturdy, and the layout is great. The front panel is great to look at, as it has two large Sifam meters, in that beautiful round housing. There's also a bevy of illuminated switches, which I have never seen on any other piece of gear. The end of the switch has a red LED that turns on when you've engaged its function. They look very cool, and feel great as well. Chip has also even had the LOMO factory logo engraved in the middle of the front panel. It practically looks like it came from the factory. You're laughing, but this stuff matters!

The rear of the unit is equippedsimply with XLR inputs and outputs to mic preamp, simply laid out, and an IEC jack for your obvious power cable.

FUNCTIONS
As I said, this thing is laid out very nicely. It's not clumsy like many other custom racking jobs that I have seen by much bigger companies. Each channel is equipped with a DI input via 1/4" jack on the front. Next to the jack is a switch that engages the DI input and defeates the mic input. Each channel also has a switch for phase reversal, 48 volt phantom power, and pad. The pad is mainly for condensors, as the modules in stock form, are intended to drive ribbons and dynamics. There is also a transformer balanced output control. Interestingly, each meter has a defeat switch. At first, I didn't realize how handy this is. If I don't feel like being safe or distracted, I can turn them off. Very cool.

The modules themselves have two controls. One is a GAIN control, the other is a High Freqiency rolloff. These pres have 65 db of gain, and use two Soviet valves each. The input transformers are original LOMO transformers, and the output transformers are CineMags. I do believe that you can inquire about different output transformers if that suits your fancy. Lastly, the modules slide in and out of the rack for easy maintenance, and are supported with a frame inside the chassis.

SOUND
The first thing you notice when you plug these in, is that they're not your typical, garden variety mic pre. They have loads of character. Immediately apparent is the huge low end. The color here is thick, making it the real deal when it comes to "warmup" boxes. The first thing I plugged in was a pair of Lomo 19A18 tube mics for ambient drums. I had to engage the pad, because these mics are very high output, especially on drums. As soon as I heard the kick drum, I knew I spent my money well. The LOMOS were ballsy and snotty right off the bat. The low mids were perfectly aggressive for drums, the cymbals sounded just right, and the extreme bottom end was huge. For several tracks, I switched to a pair of RCA 44bx ribbons, and I turned the pad off. I drove the preamps really hard with the RCAs. With the gain control at about 3 o clock, and the output backed off a bit, I got the preamps to fuzz up a bit. This sounded amazing. It was super saturated, but still fat, and the upper octaves weren't at all obnoxious.

Curious to hear the DI inputs, I plugged in a stereo Nord synth. I normally hate using DIs on synths, but this was a whole other world. The LOMO made the synth actually sound incredible. It brought the meat of the sound to the front, and tamed those plastic-like tendencies of new synths. Of course, I had to turn up the gain to see what happened. Lo and behold, the saturation was incredible yet again, making the normally boring synth sound interesting. I tried the same with bass and guitar. I was able to get a very cool guitar tone by driving the input really hot, and distorting the preamp. The LOMO wasn't always the best candidate for bass direct though, as the low end became too big at times, making it tough to tuck in. It did help some older and more anemic basses though, like my Burns Bison, and Rickenbacker 4001. The DI made these sound really spectacular.

To finish up, I used the preamps again on numerous other sources like electric guitar, vocals, tambourine, and various keyboards. I generally used condensors and dynamics for these sources. The LOMOS performed as expected : brilliantly. The LOMO may not be the best choice for certain vocal mics. The lower mids might be too thick to sit in the mix nicely. But for the other sources, the added color and thickness proved to be refreshingly incredible. It made these instruments sound more immediate, and just a bit bigger than usual.

To sum it up, this box is different than anything else currently being made. In fact, it's different than anything I have ever heard before. I have Neves, V76s, V72s, APIs, Hardys, you name it. The LOMO pres just don't sound like any of them. They deserve to be thought of in their own class. The build quality is flawless and the wiring is military grade. There is absolutely nothing to be desired with Chip's rack.

The LOMOS are not a one trick pony, but they're not swiss army knives either. Be prepared for color and character. They have tons of both. But this is the sort of box that makes you think OUTSIDE the box. It's the kind of machine that inspires you to plug anything in, and go for it. It just makes you smile. I know I'm smiling because I no longer have to lament the lack of color in my mic preamp collection!

D. James Goodwin

[infopimpster]

Would love to hear some sound clips.