Vintage Audio Technology for the Modern Studio
Mic Pre-Amplifiers

Mic Preamps enlarge and focus the sonic image...

The microphone's capsule captures the sonic "image" in the performance space and its transformer "translates" that image from physical energy to electrical energy.  Unfortunately, that "image" is very, very small.  Imagine if an MC Escher picture with all of its detail and 3-D visual trickery was originally drawn on a piece of paper the size of a spec of dust and that's how big the "image" is from the microphone.  A mic preamp may need to boost a mic signal anywhere from 55dB to 76dB.  Since dB is a term of reference expressed as a ratio based on logarithms, a 60 dB increase in signal is equal to 1060/10 or 1 million times the original signal power level!  In order to blow up an image 1 million times while retaining the clarity of the original image and not introducing noise or distortion, you need a powerful and high quality microscope or in the case of audio signal, a mic preamplifier.  TAB Funkwenwerk is dedicated to making high quality mic preamps so that you can capture the 3 dimensional sound that your microphone "hears" without loss of definition or the addition of unwanted sound artifacts.


All of our current mic pre-amplifiers are based on the original schematic of the legendary V72s mic pre-amplifier.  The historic V72 design was to be used as a combo mic/line amplifier delivering 34 dB of gain, in a broadcast studio managing spoken word and pre-recorded music.  When the recording of rock music was going through its technical boom in the 1960's, the historic V72 was having a hard time keeping up.  Studios such as EMI started pushing the boundaries of recording with bands such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd.  Siemens made a special version called the V72s.  This unit delivered 40 dB of gain- an additional 6 dB which would effectively quadruple the "volume level" to our ears.  Over the years, Oliver determined that the circuit structure for this unit was the best sounding and most stable and so we have based our circuit design around this legendary unit.  Eventually, the demands of the studio were such that even more gain was needed and the historic V76 was born.  But even this unit was merely two V72 units; one cascading into the other.  This one circuit design can be turned into a variety of units, each solving a specific application.

TAB Funkenwerk V Series Mic Pre-amplifiers

V72M Mono Tube Mic Pre-amplifier

V72S Stereo Tube Mic Pre-amplifier

V76M Mono Tube Mic Pre-amplifier

V77M Mono Tube Ribbon Mic Pre-amplifier

V78M Mono Tube Mic Pre-amplifier with split Input Sensitivity and Make-up Gain