[Potato Cakes]

Hello, everyone,

I'm messing with the idea of making some replacement channel strips to fit a TAC scorpion chassis. For the preamp side I thought about the usual suspect of circuit flavors while perusing the Technical Documents section to get some inspiration and then I thought about the V372D. It uses a bipolar power scheme which is helpful and it would be unique compared to the big three names that are often used in gear design. I just have no reference on what to expect to be as far as perceived and objective (measurable) characteristics. Does anyone here have insight regarding the V372A? I own a pair of Volker's 500 series preamps and they are nice but I don't know how similar the Neumann preamp circuit is to the TAB design.

Thanks!

Paul

[TwentyTrees]

Hi Paul,

I'll happily share my experience, having racked up a number of Neumann V472-2 and a pair of 60s V372 modules this year. The V372 were the original Tab ones with the square transformers though, so potentially different to the V372D in tone - I haven't used the latter, and the V472 might be quite different to Volker's modules, so this may just be a big old red herring! With that caveat in place...

The V472 is a great amplifier - frequency response suffers at high gains when configured as a 60dB preamp, as you'd expect from a single stage with a 1:2 input transformer, but within its comfort zone I found it clear and articulate with a surprisingly extended top and bottom end. I recorded an entire song (acoustic instruments) with a mic splitter running the mic signals to a bunch of different preamps (CAPI VP28, AML ez1073, Audient ASP, Aphex J-Pre500 and the V472) and on most signals I preferred the V472 - felt like it had an extra octave at each end compared to the ez1073 even, and presented the source and transients quite honestly. Quite fast-feeling and detailed, but not in a clinical way. Most like the Audient in overall character, but with a bit of extra depth - the Audient felt flat in comparison.

The V372 wasn't part of this exercise (it wasn't racked at that point), but I put it up against the V472 later on and it did VERY well. Quite different tonally - beautiful sound, big and smooth and very "finished"-sounding. Detailed, but not too fast. Of course, writing about the tone of a preamp is very much like tapdancing about particle physics, but if you're looking for something different then the V372 at least definitely plays with the big boys in terms of tone and quality. I would love to have another pair some day. If the "D" variant is anything like its older brother then I'm sure it's worth exploring.

Maybe one way to test out how you like the design might be to pick an original up, get it working and see how you like the sound?

[Potato Cakes]

Thanks for the detailed response. I know it's always a challenge to describe the abstract in empirical terms. I am familiar with the AML and CAPI products so for me it's a helpful comparison. I know that what ever is decided should I follow through with the capital to pursue this endeavor will sound great. As I had mentioned the draw to the TAB design for me was the uniqueness compared to the handful of brand designs that dominate the studio audio market. I'll look over the 472 schematics and see if I can some how I can integrate with my design.

Thanks!

Paul

[TwentyTrees]

Good luck with it! For what it's worth, the Neumann V472 is VERY similar to classic API designs - input transformer, discrete op amp, output transformer. The Tab / Telefunken V372 has a bit more going on!

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