AEA RPQ preamps (RPQ2 vs. RPQ3, mainly)

Designed by Fred Forssell who also designed the active part of the a-440 ribbons. High impedence too! Have not used the 3 though.

I just bought an RPQ2. It can be a little glassy on certain condensers (because it's transformerless maybe?) but it absolutely kills on my m160s. Clean, low-noise gain, and thanks to the very useful onboard EQs, you can dial in a very nice sound with a ton of headroom. And to get around the glassiness I start with my API A2D and then patch the output through the RPQ2's line input, which then allows me to use the filters on it. The big difference between the 2 and the 3 is that you can only reduce low end and add high end on the 2, and on the 3 you can add and reduce both low end and high end, if that makes sense. Wasn't worth paying the extra $700-800 for that functionality on the 3, for me.

If eq is not important, this is a preamp that was recommended to me by Mark Fouxman (Samar) and it is great on ribbons:
www.integeraudio.com/rmp2-preamp.html
and sound samples on main page:
www.integeraudio.com/

p.s. it was fun seeing and hearing the Star Wars video with these pres and John Williams.

I went and checked this out -- the designer is very transparent about his design methodology (pun intended) --> everything he lists makes sense, and I have several of the THAT arrays he uses laying around (met Gary Hebert - the "H" from THAT years ago at AES). I was tempted to look into pricing but apparently all of his preamps are "Out of Stock".

EDIT: but I should say that the simple to use EQ on the AEA RPQ is a big part of my interest - for straight clean gain with high input impedance I have Gordon Model 5 

Following. I'm looking at the RPQ and TRP both in 500 series for my RCA 44A. Biggest consideration is whether the 100K ohms input impedance on the TRP outweighs the 63K ohms input impedance and EQ options on the RPQ. I'm just reading the higher the impedance the better for a ribbon, but I'm sure there's some point of diminishing return.

Not trying to hijack the thread here. Just stating I'm in a similar situation of finding a great pre for my ribbon.

For the longest time my Mackie Onyx 800R was my ribbon pre because it had switchable impedance up to 2400k Ohms, and there wasn't much that I ever had here that really beat it for clean gain for that specific purpose (among API, Phoenix, Daking, Langevin, Focusrite, Motu). A/B'd with the RPQ2 I still couldn't hear a ton of difference without the EQ engaged. But also my ears are shit and I'm an idiot, so keep that in mind. The EQ is definitely the force multiplier here in my opinion. All those other preamps I mentioned ended up going away except for the API and Onyx because they didn't bring enough to the table. The RPQ2 is staying.

My RPQ500's are the last preamps I would give up. I'd give up my other outboard pres and use Apollo unison pres for Neve/API types before giving up the RPQs. The ribbons I have or have had (R84, R88, R44) sound significantly more open and full frequency through them. IMO, it's not a subtle difference...it's a transformative one.

My only quibble is that there's no useful feedback on the EQ knobs. I think that's a big miss on a high pass filter where you're filtering difficult low frequencies.

Somebody mentioned Coils - I can't think of two mic pres more different than a Coil and a TRP/RPQ. I had a Coil 286 for awhile, and it was great with a Coles or R44 as super vintage sounding mono overhead, but that was about it (for my taste anyway).

I love my original RPQ...get used on every session. On occasion I'll use the low cut to get rid of rumble/proximity, and make the high shelf for something like overheads or acoustic guitar. I need to get another one.

Dave Cicero just wrote to me this morning indicating that he is working on a new batch right now.  I will convey to him your variable impedance idea.  That would be great!
ADDENDUM:  Dave wrote back again, the mic pre, which I have is shown in this article: www.soundonsound.com/reviews/integer-audio-rmp2
 The three impedence choices he stated are about 300, 3K and 30K.  

This! As I read your post, I remembered how cool the interactivity is between the simple EQ, gain(pad?), and neg feedback. In the month I had the CA-286, I remember getting quite a few different sounds playing with those. The differences between them were often subtle, but each of them was uniquely useful...I thought that was impressive.


This is exactly where I end up every time now. I got hooked on preamps decades ago when I plugged an AT-4033 into a weird external half rack space Groove Tubes preamp at a friend's studio. Coming from Mackie VLZ mixer preamps, it was a revelation, and preamps became my coping mechanism for that era's digital audio (Digi 002/003, the first Apogee Ensemble) - even as I upgraded mics from a Soundelux U195 to a Peluso 2247 LE, then a Lawson L47, etc. Recording in good studios with Rosetta 800's, the first Lynx Aurora (which I liked!), a Big Ben, etc., I still clung to preamps like a security blanket to take the edge off digital audio.

Enter AEA and the TRP! Hearing clean, hifi ribbon sound was the next revelation; it fixed pretty much what I didn't like about digital. Conversion has improved enough that I can appreciate a nice condenser mic, but I still rarely reach for one recording my stuff (acoustic instruments, electric, drums, vocals...normal band kind of setup). 

I have a pair of RPQ500's now, and if I'm honest, I'm not confident enough in the filters to commit with them during tracking and so they're rarely used. Maybe its my monitoring, or my overall level of experience, but IME, it's too easy to high pass too much or not enough, and the high band is either very subtle, or sometimes even nasty and noisy depending on the starting frequency...even after a fair amount of tinkering, I still haven't found their sweet spots...I don' t usually have that problem with gear. 

andersmv , re: the shirt over the mic/Cloudlifter, are you using the Cloudlifter "Z" by chance? I wouldn't trade mine for the world. IMO, Coles 4038's (that I'm married to) are SUPER sensitive and variable with that knob. To my ears, it can open that mic way way up through any pre I've tried. I think AEA through TRP is its own super special thing, so you don't TRP accuracy with the Coles and Z, but there's not a hint of shirt over the mic syndrome! I've gotten some of favorite vocal sounds with the 4038 and the Z. :-)