Rupert Neve Designs 511 Portico 500 Series Mic Preamp Module Rupert Neve Designs

With a truly legendary transformer-balanced preamp and the flexibility of variable Silk / Texture, the 511 was designed by Rupert Neve to provide classic sonic performance with 500-series value. Incorporating the pristine preamp circuitry from the 517, the universally useful sweepable high pass filter from the 5012, and the sweetness of the variable Silk circuit derived from the flagship Portico II Channel, the 511 is a workhorse for all your most important tracks.

Designed for 500 Series by Mr. Rupert Neve

Rupert Neve: “While creating functional 500 series modules is relatively simple, designing those modules to equal their non-500 series counterparts with the current, voltage and space restraints is quite challenging. In creating our Portico 500-Series Modules, we experimented with a number of different transformer and circuit designs to achieve the same presence and sweetness found in the Portico Series of modules. The result of these efforts is that outside of the slightly lowered headroom, our 500 series modules are nearly indistinguishable from standard Portico Series modules, and are perfectly suited for studios of the highest caliber.”

Input Section

Input signals may be derived from Mic or Line sources (make sure 48V is off for line sources!). The input has a 10K ohm non-reactive input resistance that handles a full 22dBu signal without the need for a pad. The pre-amp is a TLA non-reactive design that precludes the loading of microphones with limited driving capability. A primary gain control provides 66dB of gain in 6dB increments for easy recall, with a +/- 6dB trim for fine adjustment. For condenser microphones and powered DIs, there is +48V phantom power. A transient-optimized HPF continuously covering the range from 20-250Hz is included to tame rumble and proximity effect.

Texture

One of the key developments in the 511 is the Red Silk / Texture control from the Portico II Channel. Building on the “Silk” mode found in the Portico Series mic pre-amplifiers, Texture is designed to adjust the actual amount of harmonic music content from the source material, in effect, providing wide range of tonal options for the preamplifier. Like the original Portico Silk, the Silk Red / Texture works by reducing negative feedback on the output transformer and adjusting the frequency response to more closely resemble Mr. Rupert Neve’s vintage designs. With the 511, the Texture control allows these techniques to be pushed further than previous designs, adding about 10 times the desirable THD of the original silk control at the maximum setting.

With that said, they have taken great care to ensure that the musical integrity of source material itself will not be compromised by these harmonic controls (these are not to be confused with controls from other manufactures that may “incinerate”, “demolish” or “destroy” source material), and we believe they can be confidently modified to fit the personality of any song, instrument or engineer.

Low Noise, Low Distortion Operation

Much care was given in designing the 511 to produce as little noise and non-harmonic distortion as possible. Carefully implemented signal paths and Class A operation are a large part of the 511’s sweet, whisper quiet performance.