Helios Type 69-500 Pre/EQ module

So you may have read about the lineage of this unit. It's based on the console preamps and EQs from the console at Olympic Studios where some of the most iconic 70's rock albums were recorded. It's been described by others as "woody" and a unique flavor between API and Neve. Intrigued by the descriptions, I decided to try one out.

When I first used this box, I was trying to add some outboard EQ to a lackluster distorted rhythm guitar track. It was kind of harsh in the mids, but lacked in body and needed some muscle and some smoothing. I ran the tracks out of my DAW and into the Helios with the gain switch set to "Line" and added a little 1.4 kHz with the mid control. My co-engineer and I heard the resulting sound coming out of our speakers, turned to each other and said, "Holy crap that sounds just like. . . " "Pete Townsend, yeah, it's crazy." Since then we've use the Helios as outboard EQ to mix Kick drum, snare, bass, vocals, as well as using the preamp to mic acoustic guitars, electric guitars.

Overall, I would have to say that the description of the tone of this unit as "woody" is pretty accurate. On guitars, it's definitely got that Who/Pink Floyd smooth mids without sounding scooped or dull. On snare and kick it accentuates the shell of the drum and smooths out transients in a very pleasant, vintage-sounding way. I have to say that everyone at our studio freakin' loves the sound of this thing, from the interns up to the senior staff. We do a lot of nostalgic folk rock stuff, and I wish we could afford a whole rack of these babies.

For features, in additional to the great sounding pre, there's a switchable low cut filter (40 Hz or 80Hz), phantom power and phase reverse. There's a nice smooth sounding High Shelf @ 10kHz in 2 dB increments that helps add or cut some top end when you need it. The other EQ bands are different than anything else you've probably used. There's a Mid and Bass band and a peak/trough switch that determines whether the bands boost or cut. The mid and bass bands both have continuously variable gain or cut at selectable fixed frequencies. I overall pretty happy with the number of frequency selections, the options are generally enough to get the band you need. The bass band also has a selectable filter below 70 Hz where you dial in progressively deeper cuts (from -3dB down to -15dB). It's a little redundant with the low cut filter at 80Hz, but what the heck, it's on the original and maybe someone has a use for it.

So because this is a review, I have to have some negative things to say. My biggest gripe may seem trivial, but here goes: The labeling is unclear and there is no manual. In fact, the closest thing to a manual is for the UAD plug-in version. Most importantly, there is no label or LED to indicate whether the phantom power is engaged or not. It's really easy to have the phantom power on and not know it. I had to really hunt for the answer to this, but the Up position is Off based on the British lightswitch standard, which is opposite from the US lightswitch standard. Considering my love for Ribbons and the fact that if you use the EQ as outboard during mixing you could easily send +48V back up into the outputs of your converters, I was irked that they couldn't just put a silk-screened "Off" on the face.

Another option that I wish I could have on this unit is the ability to cut or boost the bass and mid independently. Sometimes you want to cut 240 Hz while boosting 2kHz, but with this unit you have to pick one of the other.

Finally, the unit has relatively low headroom and output compared to a lot of modern preamps. It's really easy to clip this thing with the output of a DAW, even when operating in line input mode. As a mic pre, it's usually got enough juice, but sometimes we have needed to follow up the unit with an extra gain stage if we were sending things out to our passive summing bus for a mix down. Combined with the eccentric labeling and lack of manual, the low headroom causes this box to have a more of a learning curve than a lot of similar units. Fortunately, it's hard to get a bad sound out of this thing as long as you're not clipping.

At a street price of $1500, the Helios Type 69-500 is a little steep compared to most 500 series pres, but to us it's well worth the price to have such a cool preamp/EQ combo. Among our Daking, API, Shadow Hills, Sytek, and Ampex preamps, this has fast become one of our most frequently used players, and a first choice for rhythm electric guitars and snare.