Radial Engineering Ltd. is now shipping McBoost, which company officials describe as “a 100% discrete, class-A dual FET signal booster for low-output dynamic and ribbon microphones.”
The McBoost features Radial’s trademark all-steel construction with book ends that create protective zones around the switches and controls. Inside, the McBoost “features hand-matched transistors to ensure absolute performance is achieved with the dual FET class-A circuit,” according to the company’s announcement, delivering up to 25 dB of boost via a fully variable front-panel level control.
This is supplemented with a 3-position high-pass filter to eliminate excessive rumble and proximity build-up. For the purist, a 3-position impedance selector allows the engineer to optimize the load on the mic for greater accuracy or fun effect. Powering is provided by standard 48V phantom, eliminating the need for batteries or external power supply and connections are done via standard XLRs.
Here’s more on the Radial Engineering McBoost:
“We are constantly being tasked to come up with solutions to problems that audio engineers face as part of their daily routine,” says Radial’s Jay Porter. “One such problem is elevating the signal level of a low-output microphone so it can perform better with a typical mixing console. The problem is that most mic preamps and mixing desks are only designed to boost the signal by about 50 to 60 dB. Although this is perfectly suitable when working with most dynamic and condenser mics, there are several instances where more gain is necessary. The McBoost provides the perfect solution.
“The same applies for older ribbon mics. These tend to have lower sensitivity as a means to protect the ribbon from bottoming out. So they need an extra boost when used with regular preamps. You just connect the McBoost in between the mic and preamp, turn on the phantom power and you get tons of super clean boost as you breathe new life into your old favorites,” he says. “The McBoost is more than just a studio tool. It can be used to drive long cables for broadcast by improving signal to noise and it can bring a condenser-like character to dynamics for both live and studio. Once you plug it in, you will be surprised at all of the great stuff you can do.”
Click here for more information on the Radial Engineering McBoost.
