Focusrite introduces the Red 1 500 Series Mic Pre, bringing their popular transformer-based mic preamp into the smaller 500 series format.

This new member of Focusrite's growing 500 Series is based on the popular Red 1 microphone preamp, released back in 1993. It follows the same circuit topology, components and design as the original, but housed in a more compact and affordable format.

The Focusrite 500 series, also called the "Lunchbox" portable modular system, is designed to be an ideal solution for mobile or on location studios.

To stay true to the original design, the Red 1 500 Series comes with a red anodized aluminum front panel, a Lundahl LL1538 input transformer, and a custom Carnhill output transformer. This allows it to reproduce the same distinct look, vibe and mic preamp flavor as the original.

The Red 1 500 comes with Focusrite's unique mic amp topology, providing good common mode rejection, overload margin and offers a very low noise floor. This is paired with Red 1's wide bandwidth and allows it to handle a wide range of microphones, be it ribbon, dynamic or condenser.

The output stage of Red 1 500, with its custom Carnhill transformer, is designed to handle long cable runs without loss of quality, making it even more ideal for remote recordings. Mic gain is switched (with a Grayhill gold-plated military-grade switch) in 6dB steps from -6 to +60dB, for accurate, precise channel matching and recall.

Other features of the Red 1 500 includes 66dB gain, switchable phantom power, polarity invert and an illuminated classic porthole VU meter with switchable calibration.

The Focusrite Red 1 500 Series is expected to ship worldwide in April of 2013, with a retail price of $999.99. You can find out more about this new mic preamp by visiting Focusrite.

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