Warm Audio WA273 TWO CHANNEL 1073-STYLE Solid State Mic Preamp

If there’s one preamp that professional engineers would unanimously agree has defined the tone of pop/rock records for the last 50+ years, it would most definitely be the venerable 1073. The 1073 has been massively used in recording and live applications for decades and is still considered to be the “Holy Grail” of preamps today. The Warm Audio “WA73 Family” provides single and dual channel re-creations of this classic British preamp (with & w/out EQ), that each pay careful and humble homage to the original circuit.

The WA273 is a boutique, 2 channel “Desert Island” preamp, but it can also be classified as a studio and live work-horse. The classic 1073 was known for being a versatile tool that works with all kinds of microphones from Condenser, to Dynamic, to Ribbon. The WA273 equally shines on all types of microphones and sources including; vocals, acoustic/electric guitars, bass, drums, percussion, orchestras, keyboards, and even as a tone shaping tool to run partial or complete mixes through. With 80dB of gain and a fully discrete Carnhill Transformer balanced signal path, there’s no recording, mixing or engineering task that the WA273 can’t handle.

Hand Wired & Hand Assembled

The classic 1073 was hand-wired and so is the WA273! The WA273 is hand-wired and hand assembled, including the pcb components that are all populated by hand.

Capacitors & Signal Path

An important part of these classic British circuits not often discussed is the different styles of capacitors and output transistor used. Warm Audio has maintained integrity to the original design by using tantalum and polystyrene capacitors in the signal path and an output transistor choice that is much smoother in the high gain settings than what is typically found in modern 1073-style replicas.

Specifications:

Two Channel, Class A, 1073-Style British Microphone Preamp
UK made Carnhill Transformers
Hand Wired, hand assembled
80dB of gain – resistor stepped gain switch
Fully discrete
TONE button – Changes input transformer impedance for varying tone
Polarity switch
48v phantom power
4 position inductor based hipass filter – 50, 80, 160, 300 Hz
XLR mic input
Line level TRS input
TS Send/Receive insert jacks
XLR & TRS line level outputs
Direct In, instrument input
Freq response 20Hz – 20kHz +/-.5 dB
19″ rackable
Internal IEC 115v/230v power inlet