Ideal as a creative tool for professional vocal recording applications in studios, the Gyraf Audio GY 4.5 Signature Inherit Cartridge from GC Audio is a fully tube-powered microphone preamp designed for use with the modular Inherit mic preamp system. Providing a preamp circuit based on the Jakob Erland-designed Gyraf Audio Gyratec 9 preamp, the Gyraf Signature cartridge delivers a versatile sound character, from clean to very colorful.
This single-channel preamp cartridge is built around two high-voltage 12AU7 / ECC82 vacuum tubes, with no solid-state components in the signal path for a pure tube tone. The I/O is balanced by high-end Lundahl transformers. The most crucial aspect of this circuit is its slow transition to overload, allowing for a very large so-called sweet spot that offers dense analog saturation without distortion. When loaded into an Inherit rack chassis, the onboard pad provides -28 dB of attenuation for reining in overly hot signals. Preamp gain is stepped, with 12 steps for gain control from 22 to 63 dB.
The design is faithful to the original Gyratec 9 preamp in every detail, including the use of ECC82 tubes, while sporting some new enhancements, such as transformer balancing, phantom power, switchable high-pass filters, and stepped gain control. The G9, which was adapted for this cartridge, is itself based on the input circuit of the vintage G36 tape recorder.
- 1 = 22 dB
- 2 = 26 dB
- 3 = 32 dB
- 4 = 37 dB
- 5 = 42 dB
- 6 = 46 dB
- 7 = 49 dB
- 8 = 52 dB
- 9 = 56 dB
- 10 = 59 dB
- 11 = 61 dB
- 12 = 63 dB