SPL Goldmike 9844

I have this device for 1,5 year now. I have used it for recording vocals, drumkit overheads, percussion microphones.

First of all, the clarity of the SPL Goldmike 9844 is very good. It provides a clean boost, esp. necessary for dynamic microphones such as Shure SM 7. Using it as an additional preamp for condenser mic (I have tried, for example, Mojave 301 FET) is mostly not necessary as the mic is already quite sensitive, preamps on the mixer were enough in my case. In another scenario, I was recording percussion with a pair of Aston Starlights, got crispy and clear sound with the preamp.

Regarding controls, the FLAIR button is useless. It is a preset equalization and I did not find application for that.

Now the cons. SPL Goldmike 9844 is very-very-very picky to the power network interference. I had noise problems, which I tried to figure out with Thomann (thanks for the awesome support as always!). I have tried Furman M-10x E. Did not work. In the end, I run the preamp through the UPS + a custom network filter after it. That reduced noise by 20-30 db and kept it on a tolerable level. I have recently discovered that the noise was simply from the powerline connector (Ethernet over power network). If you are buying this device you have to make sure, that your power network is flawless, otherwise you will have LOTS of noise in the recording.

You shouldn't buy this unit because you have seen the word 'tube' on it. But you should buy it for plenty of other reasons.
Although it does have a single tube on each channel, this only contributes a small amount of fixed gain to the overall sound, so it doesn't really have that typical sound you would associate with all tube preamps.

It does have exceptional distortion and noise stats, giving a very pure and clean signal, with a whopping 72dB of gain availabale. I liked that.

VU meters are incredibly small, to the point of almost being un-useful.
The 'flair' switch is a very fun feature, which is quite well described by it's name..

I used this mainly for passing stereo mixes through rather than a mic preamp, or for make up gain on passive summing boxes/EQ, as it does have a very special quality, but there are other, better preamps available.

The price point is excellent however, and you would be hard pressed to find a better spec'd 2 channel preamp for this.

Feature-wise, and price-wise this preamp is a very good deal. The starved plate design actually does something interesting, although I must say that it doesn't work well for all sources. I like it on vocals and anything without strong transients. It is pecussion and guitars that I think don't sound so excellent through this preamp as the starved-tube stage colors the sound quite a bit and introduces subtle peaks and notches in the sound and also a subtle phasing effect. The flair function is actually a genious thing. It is very useful on vocals, especially when recorded with dynamic mics. The metering is nice, also and the knobs feel very sturdy and have a nice resistance to them, so twisting them is very pleasurable. Cosmetically it also looks very nice.

The classic spl gold mic 9844 has stood the test of time for many reasons some we will cover here, with this unit just try all kinds of mics until you find the right one YOU feel good about as many have different tastes and different ears. This unit delivers if you just squeeze it gently and dont push it too hard it gives great breath for vocals when you hit the flare button but as we say less is more and the qualilty of spl never lets you down , get to know it and experiment with it for acousitic guitars and vocals violins and even bass guitar.

the tubes as standerd are fine and enhance the circuits of this unit with finesse!