Mäag Audio has knocked it out of the park with the PREQ2-500, a 500 Series preamp featuring their acclaimed Air Band. I’ve had the opportunity to use two PREQ2-500s in my studio on all sorts of sources, and I have been thrilled with the dimension and flexibility they have added to my recordings.
The PREQ2-500 is a single-channel 500 Series mic preamp with 71 dB of Class A gain, the same nickel core input transformer as their PREQ2, and Mäag’s easily recognizable blue faceplate and colorful knobs. The Air Band frequency has six fixed bands between 2.5 and 40 kHz and a separate gain knob that offers up to 9 dB of boost to the selected frequency. A sweepable microphone Gain has two ranges: one suitable for most sources (+20 dB to +42 dB) and another (+42 dB to +71 dB) for quieter sources like ribbon microphones or low-output vintage microphones. The higher range is selected by engaging a +25 Gain button. The microphone transformer feeds a differential set of Class A discrete transistors paired with a FET input operational amplifier. This helps define the sound of the PREQ2-500, giving it a ton of headroom (+27 dB) and an extremely low noise floor (-128 dB). There are also four more buttons: a -20 dB pre-transformer Pad, a 70 Hz high-pass filter, phantom power, and polarity.
At the bottom of the PREQ2-500 is a 1/4-inch instrument input jack that will automatically route the signal to the input transformer. Next to the input jack is a 1/4-inch Inst/Mic Thru output jack that provides an unbalanced, isolated, and boosted duplicate of either the microphone or the instrument inputs. This is helpful when you want to record a direct signal and an amp signal, like with electric guitar, bass, or keys. Because the Thru jack also duplicates the microphone input, I’ve often used this for parallel recording – by using the PREQ2-500 as the clean signal and sending the Thru to another piece of gear, whether that be another preamp for transformer saturation, compressors for parallel compression, or effects units. Sending the Thru signal to a delay unit so the performer can adjust controls as they’re performing works well too. This ability to easily record in parallel has been quite handy!
The PREQ2-500 has a huge range of capabilities that allows it to thrive in a lot of different scenarios. When you don’t dig into the input transformer, it’s ultra clean, quiet, and uncolored, making it perfect for jazz, acoustic, and voiceover sessions. It has been my go-to for recording Leslie amps, acoustic guitars, and pianos. The large headroom and low noise floor allow the huge dynamic and harmonic range of a Leslie to come through beautifully. Just as important, the headroom helps the complex harmonics to shine. This, paired with the high-pass and Air Band, allows you to capture harmonically rich instruments and ribbon mics fully mix-ready, something that not many preamps can do at this level.
I have to say, one of my favorite aspects of this preamp is how the PREQ2-500 performs when pushing the input transformer. Driving the inputs helps tracks cut through the mix in a unique way – the harmonic distortion is almost unnoticeable, giving the signal a very clean sound, but it adds beautiful punchy and airy qualities, making it extremely helpful when recording snare and vocals. Additionally, when running mixes through the PREQ2-500, pushing the input transformers and engaging the Air Band has brought a new level of life to tracks in a way that plug-ins simply can’t. I couldn’t be happier with the PREQ2-500; highly recommended!