Chameleon Labs Debuts 7602 MKII Mic Pre / EQ & 7802 Stereo Opto Tube Compressor
Chameleon Labs has announced two new products, the 7802 Opto Tube Compressor, a unique hybrid design of vacuum tube and transformer circuitry combined with modern, high performance components, and the 7602 MKII Mic Pre/EQ, the sequel to the company’s 100% discrete, Class ‘A’, vintage inspired 7602.
The 7602 MKII employs a classic circuit design, polystyrene capacitors, a gold contact gain selector and custom wound transformers. New features include: selectable mic impedance, LED input metering, and sleek anodized aluminum knobs. A factory installed Carnhill Mic and Output transformer modification ($249) is now offered as an upgrade. The 7602 MKII also includes an inline transformer power supply. The rackmountable CPS-1 can still be ordered separately, but it is no longer required.
The Model 7602 MKII Microphone Preamplifier/Equalizer is based on a classic and revered design utilizing pure Class ‘A’ circuitry. This unit is made with 100% discrete components, hand wound transformers and was fabricated to precisely match vintage counterparts manufactured in the early to mid 70’s.
Equalizer Highlights
» Selectable 3 band design with a flexible filter section
Filter – This is a high pass filter with 3db loss at 300Hz, 160Hz, 80Hz, and 50Hz with an 18db cut per octave slope.
» Low Equalization – This section has a shelving slope with four frequency selections: 220Hz, 110Hz, 60Hz, and 35Hz. This equalizer affects the selected frequency and all others below it. The gain control provides 20db of boost or cut.
» Mid Equalization – This section has a peaking characteristic with six frequency selections: 360Hz, 700Hz, 1.6k, 3.2k, 4.8k, and 7.2k. The gain control provides 20db of boost or cut.
» High Equalization – This section has a shelving characteristic with five frequency selections: 16k, 12k, 7k, 4.9k and 3.4k. This section adjusts the selected frequency and all others above it. The gain control provides 20db of boost or cut.
Features:
» Fully balanced transformer mic and line inputs
» Balanced XLR output
» Hi-Z direct input for instruments on the front panel
» LED input metering
» Selectable mic impedance switch (300 or 1200 Ohms)
» 48VDC phantom power switch
» 180 degree phase reversal switch
» 20 position gold contact ELMA rotary gain switch for both Mic and Line sections
» Output level control functions as a fader when going straight to tape
» Carnhill mic and output transformer option ($249) *
» One-year warranty
In the spirit of classic opto compressors, the 7802 Stereo Opto Tube Compressor is a unique hybrid design of vacuum tube and transformer circuitry combined with modern, high performance components. The 7802 offers smooth, open, full bandwidth compression, while imparting a pleasant, subtle glow to your tracks. The silky attack is achieved via electro-optical circuitry, followed by a robust tube makeup gain stage. Final perfection is presented via the transformer balanced outputs.
Features:
» Two channel opto-isolator / tube-based compression
» Stereo linkable channels
» Vactrol optical electronics
» Hand selected 12AX7 tubes
» Five position attack/release selector
» Two position ratio switch (2:1 and 4:1)
» HPF switch for compressor side chain (6dB/octave roll off, 3dB down @ 90Hz)
» Drive control to adjust the amount of tube overdrive
» Output control to set the overall output level
» LED metering of input and clip levels
» VU metering of compression
» XLR balanced inputs
» XLR transformer balanced outputs
» Internal power supply
» One year warranty
The Chameleon Labs 7602 MKII Mic Pre / EQ costs $739 and the 7802 Stereo Opto Tube Compressor costs $799 and will both be available by the end of the year. More information on the Chameleon Labs 7602 MKII and 7802 Stereo Opto Tube Compressor.
