Silicon 51x - 51x series Solid State Mic Preamp

Silicon51x  is currently in production and will be available September 2024

Silicon is the 500 / 51x module version of the much loved Microphone Preamplifier of the Ark console.

For pure sonic clarity, Silicon’s transformerless, universal, solid-state amp can accept signals from any type of microphone whatsoever. 

Even older Ribbon microphones, synths or guitars can be directly connected without a problem (so yes, you can also use this mic input as a line input).

With an extraordinarily low Equivalent Input Noise of -138dBu, Silicon will not add any noise over and above that coming from the microphone itself.

The Mic trim pot gain range has been limited from +20 to +60 dB to allow fine level control.

To allow for lower input level boost, we added a 20dB [Range] switch, so the range can be changed to be 0 to +40 dB, keeping the same fine control of the input signal.

Note that the [Range] switch is not a “Pad”, but changes the gain range of the microphone amplifier by modifying the following parameters:

- the value of the gain pot

- the quiescent current of the input stage

- the amount of feedback used to stabilise the circuit accordingly

All of these are necessary to preserve the exemplary noise, distortion and headroom performance at all gains.

In short: While a “pad” and our “range” have a similar effect, a “pad” adds noise to the signal, our [Range] switch does not.

Silicon features our custom bargraph meter and the High-Pass-Filter (Lo-Cut-Filter) from the EQ section of the Ark console.

Product page on the Interphase Audio website