Trident A-Range 500 Series Preamp

Trident Recording Studio’s started operations back in the 1960’s as a recording studio. Many things came out of the Recording Studio that led to what Trident Audio Developments is today.

Trident Recording Studios recorded legendary bands like David Bowie, The Beatles, James Taylor, Queen, Supertramp, Mott The Hoople, Bad Company, Free, Rush, Elton John, Manfred Mann, T-Rex and so many more, we simply do not have the space to list them all here. These recordings were done by incredible recording engineers like Roy Thomas Baker, Ken Scott, Tony Platt, Tony Visconti, Adam Moseley, Dave Hentschel, and many others. Trident Studios was the place known by the most famous bands as the place to record in London.

Trident studios were the first studio to acquire the first ever 8 Track from Ampex. No one in London had an 8 Track…not even EMI. When Trident got its first 16 track recorder, they decided to buy a new recording console but simply could not find any commercially available console to do 16 track recording with the feature set they needed. It was decided by the powers to be at Trident that between the recording engineers, and the technical staff under the direction of Barry Porter, Trident would attempt to build their own custom console.

The first console was designed purely for Trident Studios and was designated the ‘A’ Series. It was hand built to the need of the facilities and designed to be ergonomic. In those days, the integrated circuit (I.C.) had not been invented, so all the circuits used individual transistors (known as discrete design). This and the use of inductors in the lower and upper mid equaliser sections are said to account for much of the unique sound of the ‘A’ Series. From this first successful design was borne Trident Audio Developments Ltd, which went on to become a leading manufacturer of music recording consoles. One of the company’s earliest advertising slogans was ‘designed by recording engineers for recording engineers’.

This became a key component of what made the ‘Trident Sound’ unique. As a recording engineer rather than an electronics engineer, Trident Audio Developments was designed by the engineer’s ears, rather than a textbook of electronic design, and it is this, coupled with over thirty years’ experience that has enabled Trident Audio Developments to develop its own ‘philosophy of sound’ that is Trident’s trademark.

The “A” Series eventually led to the development of the “A“ Range Console, which became the console everyone wanted to work and record on. The “A“ Range was quickly labelled as the best sounding console ever. It should be noted, a large part of this sound, along with the legendary sounding EQ was the unique warm sound of the A-Range’s all discreate microphone preamplifiers.
There were only thirteen A Range consoles ever built back in the 1970’s, and almost all of them have been rebuilt and are still in use today, despite being nearly forty years old. This says a lot about the heritage of these iconic items of recording equipment and the artists that have used them.

We hope you will enjoy the A Range 500 Series MIC PRE as much as we have enjoyed designing it.

Technical Specifications
Power : +16V =18mA, -16V=14mA
+48V=13mA (Max 27mA when Phantom activated)

Microphone Input to Output
Input Impedance : 1.5KΩ
Gain : Variable -∞ to +70dB (Input gain -6dB to +60dB and Output gain from -∞ to +10dB).
Bandwidth Min Gain : 12Hz to 75KHz (+/- 0.5dB 20Hz to 15KHz) – Output level at max and input level at min).
Bandwidth Max Gain : 15Hz to 70KHz (+/- 0.5dB 20Hz to 15KHz) – Output level at max and input level at max).
Distortion : THD + Noise = 0.02% 100Hz to 20KHz (+15dBu Output).
EIN : Better than -126dBu @+70dB gain with 150Ω input load.
Noise : -94dBu (Measured at Min Input Level and O/P level set at 0dB gain (22Hz/22KHz)
Max Output : +22dBu.

Line Input
Input Impedance : >20KΩ
Gain : Variable -∞ to +46dB (Input level -24dB to +36dB and Output level from -∞ to +10dB).
Bandwidth Min Gain : >100KHz (Output level at max and input level at min).
Bandwidth Max Gain : > 70KHz (Output level at max and input level at max).
Distortion : THD + Noise = < 0.05%
Noise : -87dBu (22Hz/22KHz filtered) – Output at Max.
Max Output : +22dBu

Hi-Z Line Input
Input Impedance : Front panel switchable unbalanced 500KΩ to 5MΩ Internally range can be switched from 500KΩ/2.5MΩ or 1MΩ/5MΩ.
Gain : Variable -∞ to +58dB (Input level -3dB to +48dB and Output level from -∞ to +10dB).
Distortion : <0.06% @+15dBu output.
Noise : -94dBu (Min Input level) to -43dBu (Max Input Level) – With Output level set a unity (0) level.