The legendary 1073 wrote the book on characterful mic preamplification and EQ. These venerable circuits helped define the punchy sound of '70s rock — and countless recordings and live concerts ever since. Today, this coveted tone can be yours for a song, with the Warm Audio WA273-EQ mic/line/instrument preamp. In both design and performance, the 2-channel WA273-EQ pays homage to the revered British console lineage that started it all. Throughout the audio industry, the 1073 is considered the holy grail of preamps and EQs, with a rich, sweet, and bold tonality that's ideal for making audacious statements with your music. After years of R&D, painstaking reverse-engineering, and countless hours of listening, Warm Audio captured the sonic essence of this classic perfectly in their boutique WA273-EQ. With 80dB of gain and a fully discrete transformer-balanced signal path, the sound is a revelation: harmonically rich bottom end, focused midrange, and slightly resonant highs.
Running drum busses through the WA273-EQ could be real sweet.
...it's too slow to catch peaks. The WA-2a is an interesting piece, it sounds great patched across the preamp of the WA-273EQ (the patch points in the rear that insert unbalanced into the preamp). I do like the WA-2a for tracking, it does not have the bass-girth the UA piece does but it sounds very...
I was referencing Get to Billboard HiEMO singer-songwriter level from that. As mentioned, you could replace the preamp (Portico 511), swap in perfect tubes, cables, room, and gain-staging. It will be a bit edgier than Sony, Neve, and Tube-Tech, which can be an advantage too.
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