Heritage Audio BritStrip 73-Style Channel Strip with Equalizer and Diode Bridge Compressor

50 Years of Analog Design In One Rack Space.
Introducing the Heritage Audio BritStrip - the culmination of 50 years of analog design in a single rack unit. Britstrip nails the sound of yesterday's iconic recordings for today's demanding engineers.

The BritStrip combines a real-deal 73 mic preamplifier, an expanded 73 style equalizer, a discrete Class A DI, and the infamous diode bridge compressor from Heritage Audio's popular Successor. The closest equivalent of the BritStrip would be chaining together a 73 JR II, a 73 EQ JR and mono Successor.

The Mic Preamp That Meets All The Demands
The BritStrip starts with the same preamp as our 73 JR II, with a new custom Input transformer co-designed with Carnhill and exclusively made for HA in the St Ives factory. The preamp also features a custom Carnhill St Ives Output transformer, which completes its all discrete, Class A, 3-gain stage design. The preamp features 80 dB of gain, a 20 dB pad, phase reversal and an impedance switch for 1200 Ohm or 300 Ohm Input.

The Discrete Class-A DI
The DI is also taken from the highly acclaimed design found in the Heritage Audio 73 JR II, an all-discrete Class A JFET circuit in front of the microphone transformer, giving you all of the color and weight you could ask for. The DI also includes a passive thru Output to feed a separate amplifier simultaneously.

An Expanded 73 Equalizer
The BritStrip EQ features 3 Vinkor pot core inductors in the mid band and high pass filter sections. The impact is hard to believe with extreme boosts being exceptionally musical. The mid band is great for sculpting fat and punchy snare, kick, guitars, vocals - you name it! No need to be subtle like you would with most eqs - BritStrip doesn't sound phasey and doesn't lose headroom at extreme settings.

The inductor-based low-pass filter, directly taken from the 73 design, lets you control excessive out of range low end - without affecting the quality of your desired frequencies. The high and low shelves have been extended to include a bell mode - making them more versatile than ever before.

A Successor-Like Compressor
The diode bridge bus compressor needs little introduction, as its the same compressor found in the multi award-nominated Heritage Audio Successor. Diode bridge compression, a 60 year old patent, took on a whole new life with the expanded features and incredibly fast attack & release times of the Successor.

With the BritStrip, this powerful compressor design is perfect to use for tracking, thanks to its blend control and elaborate sidechain filter. This gives you plenty of tracking potential, as you can give instruments that "record-ready" vibe as performers monitor - giving them a finished "real-time feel" as they perform.

The compressor section provides plenty of sidechain flexibility, with 5 frequency options as well as an external sidechain Input. And if that weren't enough flexibility, 2 BritStrips can have their compressors linked for the ultimate stereo tracking solution.

Routing Flexibility
The BritStrip allows for compression and equalizer routing. Equalizing pre-compression makes the compression detector more sensitive to the boosted frequencies and less sensitive to those cut. Inversely, equalizing post compression makes the detector insensitive to the EQ settings.