With a big, bold preamp and the flexibility of variable Silk/Texture, Rupert Neve designed the 511 to combine classic sonics with 500-series value. Incorporating the 517’s powerful preamp, the 5012’s universally useful sweepable high pass filter, and the transformer-saturating power of a variable silk circuit derived from our flagship Portico II Channel, the 511 is a Rupert Neve-designed micpre for the masses.
Designed for 500 Series by Mr. Rupert Neve
Rupert Neve: “While creating functional 500 series modules is relatively simple, designing those modules to equal their non-500 series counterparts with the current, voltage and space restraints is quite challenging. In creating our own 500-Series Modules, we experimented with a number of different transformer and circuit designs to achieve the same presence and sweetness found in the Portico Series of modules. The result of these efforts is that outside of the slightly lowered headroom, our 500 series modules are nearly indistinguishable from standard Portico Series modules, and are perfectly suited for studios of the highest caliber.”
MIC GAIN
A 12-way precision rotary switch controls gain from 0 to 66 dB in 6 dB steps.
TRIM
Continuously variable +/-6 dB level control.
+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, and illuminates when engaged. The symbol “Ø” is often used to denote opposite polarity.
HIGH PASS FILTER
The high pass filter is continuously variable from 20-250Hz and engaged by the HPF switch, which illuminates when engaged. It is a valuable aid in any signal chain, but particularly so in a microphone preamplifier. Signals below the selected frequency are attenuated at a rate of 12db / octave, getting rid of proximity effect, building rumble, air handling, motor hum, etc.
SILK / TEXTURE
Pushing the Silk button engages the red Silk circuit, which reduces the negative feedback on the output transformer, adding harmonic content as the texture is increased. Red Silk accentuates the saturation in the mid and high frequencies, similar to that of the red silk mode on the Portico II Channel. By manipulating the Texture control, the amount of Silk can be changed from essentially absent, to roughly 10 times the amount of coloration / distortion found in Silk from the original Portico Series. With Silk / Texture engaged, the distortion characteristic and harmonic content of the unit are very reminiscent of many of Rupert’s class-A vintage designs.
LEVEL METER
An Eight-segment LED bar-graph meter displays output level (pre-Silk). The color range proceeds from green for lower level signals, yellow for intermediate signals, and red for high levels. When the 511 is clipped, the highest red LED will hold longer depending on how far above the clip threshold the signal was.
US and EU parcels ship via UPS, ETA 1-7 working days from pickup day zero. That also applies to most
locations worldwide.
All shipments are fully insured.
Bigger shipments requiring pallets or custom made crates ship to US, CA, JP, CN, AU and other outside of EU
locations via DHL Air Freight, ETA is normally approx. 7-14 working days from pickup day zero.
Big shipments inside EU ship via different freight companies, recently mostly via ACE Logistics. Freight
forwarders can use different courier companies for deliveries to final destinations.
Palletising and crating time can vary depending on the size of the shipment and packaging queue. We pack all
our shipments with great care.
You are most welcome to pick your order up yourself from our Retrosonic Pro Audio showroom, studio and
warehouse in Tallinn, Estonia.
We ship worldwide – contact us for a personal shipping quote or any other questions.
VAT (Value Added Tax) can be deducted if you have a company with a valid EU VAT number or if you're based
outside of the EU. Non-EU buyers pay all and any import tax and duty as regulated by their local customs.