Rupert Neve Designs 500 Series 517 Microphone Preamplifier/DI/Compressor

Classic tone & control for your mic and instrument.
The 517 includes a world-class mic preamp, one-knob compressor, an Instrument input with dedicated gain control and Vari-phase, Silk saturation and blend controls for INST/Mic - all in a single 500 series module.

Features

Gain
A 12-way precision rotary switch covering from Line (0) and Mic from 0 to 66 dB in 6 dB steps.

+48V
Engages phantom power on the microphone input, as supplied by the 500 series rack.

Polarity
Push button inverts the polarity of the signal path. The symbol "Phi" is often used to denote opposite polarity.

Compressor
Based around a new LDR (light dependent resister) design, the 517's opto-coupler compressor has been simplified to a single threshold control with auto make up gain. By default, the compressor is set to a fixed 2:1 ratio with fixed attack and release. To set the compressor, simply dial the threshold control down until the desired amount of compression is achieved. An LED light indicates when the compressor is active.

Blend
The 517 can be used to combine and compress the Mic input and the Instrument input. For example, the Instrument input could be used for an acoustic guitar's pickup output while the Mic input is being used for either a guitar amp speaker or a vocal. The blend knob can then control the tonal balance between the two sources.

Silk
Illuminated push-button that engages the Silk circuit, which enhances the source's harmonic content by utilizing the custom Rupert Neve Designs output transformer.

Vari-Phase
The Vari-Phase control rotates the phase incrementally, allowing two signals with the same source to be phase aligned. This control is most apparent when the signals being combined are at roughly equal levels, and is generally used when blending an instrument's direct signal with its amplified signal, as captured by a microphone.

Instrument Gain
Front panel TRS Input and passive through for hi-z sources. Continuous gain control from 0dB to 30dB.

Thru & Inst 1/4" Jacks
These 2 jacks can be used for a direct instrument input and a passive Thru output. This instrument has a dedicated gain control and can be blended with Mic Input signal.