What Is A Preamp And Why Should I Care

Let’s start broadly with the title of this discussion. In a few sentences, what is a microphone preamp, and why should we care? Geoff Daking: The simplest description is that a mic preamp receives the tiny voltage output from a microphone and brings it up to a more usable level. John La Grou: A microphone preamp is a voltage amplifier and current buffer. It can boost mic output levels by 1000 times or more, while sourcing a significant amount of output current. Dan Kennedy: It starts at the microphone, which is amplified by the preamp to line level, which is compatible with compressors and equalizers (if used), which then feeds the A/D converter or tape machine input. EveAnna Manley: Also importantly, the input of your microphone preamplifier has to be able to accommodate different levels and impedances that various microphones will present to it. So your microphone preamplifier needs to amplify with utmost fidelity and be flexible enough to work with a variety of microphone outputs. G