Mäag Audio has knocked it out of the park with the PREQ2-500, a 500 Series preamp featuring their acclaimed Air Band. I’ve had the opportunity to use two PREQ2-500s in my studio on all sorts of sources, and I have been thrilled with the dimension and flexibility they have added to my recordings.
The PREQ2-500 is a single-channel 500 Series mic preamp with 71 dB of Class A gain, the same nickel core input transformer as their PREQ2, and Mäag’s easily recognizable blue faceplate and colorful knobs. The Air Band frequency has six fixed bands between 2.5 and 40 kHz and a separate gain knob that offers up to 9 dB of boost to the selected frequency. A sweepable microphone Gain has two ranges: one suitable for most sources (+20 dB to +42 dB) and another (+42 dB to +71 dB) for quieter sources like ribbon microphones or low-output vintage microphones. The higher range is selected by engaging a +25 Gain button. The microphone transformer feeds a differential set of Class A discrete transistors paired with a FET input operational amplifier. This helps define the sound of the PREQ2-500, giving it a ton of headroom (+27 dB) and an extremely low noise floor (-128 dB). There are also four more buttons: a -20 dB pre-transformer Pad, a 70 Hz high-pass filter, phantom power, and polarity.