Presonus Audio electronic manual Product Reviews Audio Media, June DigiMAX 96k

Product Reviews

Audio Media, June 2001

DigiMAX 96k

By Simon Tillbrook

To review a microphone pre-amplifier is an awkward prospect. These items in our effects rack hold such importance to the overall sound, but their performance in this respect is subjective.

So many variables are involved when judging them: Microphone choice, placement, acoustic environment, and so on. On this occasion however the task was made so much easier by a unit that was universally liked by all who came into contact with it.

The PreSonus DigiMAX is an eight-channel microphone pre-amplifier with dual domain limiters and digital outputs. Now there's a mouthful. This unit comes in two parts — a single rack space processor and a separate power supply. Four green LEDs on the face of the power supply confirm the presence of each of the power rails.

The front of the very pretty rack unit (sculptured aluminum panel with blue anodized knobs) is clearly split into eight numbered sections. Each channel consists of a dual concentric rotary control, the inner part, the pre-amplifier gain control, utilizes Class A discrete input buffer with a dual servo gain stage giving 60dB of gain (the amplifier has inherent gain of 12dB, so a total gain of 72dB).

The outer part controls the dual domain limiter's threshold, from 0 to +24dB. All channels have switchable phantom power, found rather annoyingly on the rear of the unit, a pad switch reducing the incoming level by 20dB, and a unique feature called EQ Enhance. When pushed this engages a signal cut of 3dB, centered at 1kHz, from 250Hz to 5KHz to give a smoothing effect on the mid-range.

In addition to these features, Channels 1 and 2 also have a phase reverse button and an instrument input accessed by a standard jack socket.

PreSonus Audio Electronics 7257 Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70806

T 225.216.7887 F 225.926.8347 www.presonus.com