Atlas Pro Audio Juggernaut 500 series preamp

[NathanEldred]

This is the new Atlas Pro Audio Juggernaut 500 series preamp. The design is a colaboration between Tim Farrant and myself.
It is still in the final stages of beta and should be out early Spring time of '08.

• Fully Class A & discrete electronics
• Switchable custom input transformers (iron or nickel), short auto mute when switching between the two
• Custom iron core output transformer (optional nickel core ouput available)
• Boost - Low gain or high gain settings (eliminates the need for input pad, which would affect the sound adversly)
• 41 position Detented gain potentiometer made by Alps (approx 1db increments)
• 41 position Detented/variable impedance (300 ohms to 10,000 ohms) on mic preamp
• Instrument input
• Heavy duty fluted aluminum knobs
• Mute button
• Most important - LEDs on buttons glow
• +THD is 10db pad on output to drive it a bit

[oudplayer]

I dunno Nathan... I don't think there's enough options on that there mic preamp... I mean, if it doesn't have multiband compression and a deesser it's kinda a dealbreaker for me...

Seriously, looks great, really looking forward to hearing this one!

What does the "clip" button do?

I'd go with blue and red on the lights...

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by oudplayer

I dunno Nathan... I don't think there's enough options on that there mic preamp... I mean, if it doesn't have multiband compression and a deesser it's kinda a dealbreaker for me...

Seriously, looks great, really looking forward to hearing this one!

What does the "clip" button do?

I'd go with blue and red on the lights...

We definitely tried to make it feature packed to seperate it from the crowd as much as possible. The clip button is just a clip indicator, but instead of a small red light we kept the same matte steel style button for the symmetry of the look. The buttons actually light up on the outer circle that appears dark in the pic, while the center of the button remains not lit. Thanks for the input on the lights, do you think it should be a mix, or all of one of the same?

[mahasandi]

great work this thing is loaded!

[futur2]

looks great, not sure if i like the logo ring around the di input graphically, but the rest has a real noble flavour!

but most important how does it sound? nathan?

[futur2]

oh yeah, price?

[gm5k]

Congratulations, Nathan and Tim!

gorgeous looking pre IMO. bet it'll sound even better. looks to have very useful and cool features, nothing superfluous.

Originally Posted by futur2

but most important how does it sound? nathan?

+1

[oudplayer]

Originally Posted by NathanEldred

We definitely tried to make it feature packed to seperate it from the crowd as much as possible. The clip button is just a clip indicator, but instead of a small red light we kept the same matte steel style button for the symmetry of the look. The buttons actually light up on the outer circle that appears dark in the pic, while the center of the button remains not lit. Thanks for the input on the lights, do you think it should be a mix, or all of one of the same?

Well, obviously red for the clip light is probably the most intuitive...

The test, in my opinion, would be to try combinations of the lights and try to parse the display from a distance. For example, with our BAE racked API 312s or our John Hardy M1s, from 20+ feet we can tell which buttons we have depressed by the color pattern (good interface design). In contrast, the GML mic pre is practically illegible at 1ft (bad interface design). It would seem to me that "48v", "polarity", and "mute" are all 1 kind of category of selection, while the "THD" and transformer-selectors are another. The boost is an odd-one-out... Perhaps it could be red, like the clip light?

Just some thoughts... hope they're of use someway

[s.d.finley]

Sweet!!

Price please!!

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by futur2

looks great, not sure if i like the logo ring around the di input graphically, but the rest has a real noble flavour!

I'm open to suggestions about the logo. I'd like to not deviate too much from it though, unfortunately space is very limited on the little 500 faceplate.

but most important how does it sound? nathan?

I wouldn't put my company name on something that didn't sound incredible. Let's just say Tim is a genius, and I'm a picky engineer.

Price?

TBA, still won't know exactly for a couple months.

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by oudplayer

Just some thoughts... hope they're of use someway

It's a big help E-, thanks. So basically alternate blue and red? Anybody else?

[Snatchman]

Looks good Nathan...... I like the name. Juggernaut always sounded..... intimidating!...

[TRW]

Looks cool. Nice feature set. Are those Sowter input transformers?

Love to see a shot of the guts plus some more info on the design...single gain stage like API or cascaded like Neve?

Cheers Tom

[initialsBB]

Wow, that's hot. Does the DI go through an input transformer?

[futur2]

Originally Posted by NathanEldred

I'm open to suggestions about the logo. I'd like to not deviate too much from it though, unfortunately space is very limited on the little 500 faceplate.

ok, if you ask me for my honest opinion. i know it's your logo but i'd leave the whole circle thing around the di input, cancel the text to the left (500 series class a... bla, pretty self explanatory and simply not necessary) and put atlas pro audio and juggernaut there... small. much more class! oh yeah showed this to my girlfriend, she is a graphic designer and a good one, she thinks so too...

green and red lights are fine...

[pan60]

sweet sweet sweet, looking pre!
congrats Nathan ~

[deuc647]

WOW, i think you hit a big void with the iron on a 500 series pre. Something that the mono gama should have done, great pre and loaded with tonal feartues, please try to keep it reasonably priced and i promise to purchase at least a pair, great product.

[Jonathan Starr]

Beautiful looking pre. Can't wait to try one.

Congrats

& Happy Holidays

[DRC]

It looks just fine Nathan. But I would make all the button lamps the same color except maybe the 'clip'. Is it a Jensen on the Output? Can't wait to try one out.

[deuc647]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

Wow, that's hot. Does the DI go through an input transformer?

.....+1

[KBOY]

I personally love the logo around the di. Very different and was the first thing that caught my attention. It's hard on these size units to make anything stand out. And I think you did what you should. Make the brand name stand out and look completely different from most of the competition. It's also hard to make some text look good in a circle without it looking like you used cd stomper software to wrap text.

So, I like!

[BLueROom]

I love the logo around the input jack.

Really intriguing man. Nice job.

[NathanEldred]

Thanks everybody for the support and kind words. Looks like the logo stays as is!!

Still would love more opinions on the button lights, I need to find a majority concensus.

[pan60]

i like the blue lights but the red would be fine as well.
dose not bother me what the color is.
i also think the logo is cool as is.

[thebri]

Looks great my man, circle logo and all. I agree with the blue lamps on all, 'cept red for clip.

[pan60]

Originally Posted by thebri

Looks great my man, circle logo and all. I agree with the blue lamps on all, 'cept red for clip.

yep
red on the clip.

[TAVD]

That's a sexy looking preamp. thumbsup

Blues lights would be my preference. Red clip would be cool too. At the risk of it looking like a Christmas tree, a third color for +48v would be smart. A tri-color clip light would take the cake.

How about a shot of the side.

[bgrotto]

+1 for blue, with a different color for the clip indicator. Red would make sense...

If you'd like someone to review this thing, Nathan, I'd be happy to. It'd look great in the OSA lunch box I bought from you a couple years ago...








...Me=Shameless.

[cww2]

Agree with most. Blue lamps + red on clip.

[NathanEldred]

For everyone who said all blue lights (except for the clip)...one concern. What about being able to differentiate the different functions in the control room? Especially the two different input transformers. Do you think maybe iron should be blue, and nickel green or red? When you push one transformer button it will automatically turn that button on and turn the other off.