Cranborne Audio Camden 500 Series Mic Preamp

The  Cranborne Audio Camden 500 is a supremely clean, linear and transparent 500 series mic preamp with added coloured options.

The Cranborne Audio Camden 500 has been designed in the UK with the intention of being the ultimate front-end for recording engineers. It uses a unique custom preamp topology nicknamed ‘ Camden’ that delivers impressive performance from extreme low-noise and low distortion to frequency and phase linearity at all gain settings. This translates in THD+N as low as 0.0002% and a frequency response of +/-0.7dB between 5Hz to 200kHz at max gain. Phase shift is also inferior to 2 degrees between 20Hz and 20kHz. It provides up to 68dB of gain, enough to power any microphone without sacrificing any of the precision and natural sound.

For those instances where you may require colour and vibe, the Camden 500 includes a unique Mojo circuitry replacing the more traditional transformers with two discrete analogue saturation styles. Mojo consists of an array of filters and discrete second and third harmonic generators that provide the characteristics of vintage transformer and valve equipment. A choice of two voicings is provided. Thump brings low-frequency excitement, between 20Hz and 100Hz adding weight and fuller sound. Cream blends two saturation stages to bring a fair amount of distortion to help your source cut through a busy mix while smoothing out the low-mids and. On full range material, it will also add low-end and smoothing of transients. None of the tone-shaping is achieved through equalisation ensuring a fuller and tighter sound with no smeariness.

Optimised for and fully-compliant with the 500-series format

• Camden 500 is not a 19” unit shoe-horned into a 500-series module, it has been designed from the ground-up to perform under the low-voltage power rails and supply current limitations of the 500-series format whilst delivering ground-breaking performance.

Performs at the near-theoretical limits of noise, distortion, and phase/frequency linearity at all gain settings

• EIN: <-129.5dBu, 150 ohm source, unweighted, <-135.5dBu, Inputs common, unweighted
• THD+N: <0.0004%, 1kHz, 35dB gain, 24dBu out
• Intermodulation Distortion: <0.0008%, 50Hz and 7kHz, 35dB gain, 20dBu out
• Phase Shift: <2.25°, 40dB gain, 20Hz to 20kHz, <4°, Max gain, 20Hz to 20kHz
• Freq. Response: <±1dB, <5 Hz to >200 kHz, all gain settings
• CMRR: >70dB, typ >85dB, 35dB Gain, 10-20kHz, 100mV Common mode

Optimised input Impedance and input headroom for Mic, Line, and Hi-z sources

• Mic Preamp, Instrument Di, and – thanks to Mojo – line-level analogue saturator

Custom ‘Mojo’ analogue saturation circuit with variable control, true bypass, and 2 discrete styles – Thump and Cream

• Reamp tracks from your DAW through Mojo to apply analogue saturation to your stems, VST, and stereo mixes
• Thump excites low-end content by boosting lower odd/even harmonics from a range of 160Hz to 20Hz and below
• Cream boosts odd/even harmonics whilst also reducing the amplitude of the fundamental frequencies and applying typical transformer-style transient taming
• Gold Flashing on backplane contacts for increased conductivity and durability

Designed & Engineered in the United Kingdom