Like the potentiometers, the buttons all feel great and engage firmly and securely. And Warm Audio have provided some thoughtful features - for example, instead of the fixed 12kHz HF shelf of the Neve 1073 and many clones, we're treated to the greater range of options of the Neve 1084. The EQ is inductor-based, again adding to the weight, and inductors can attractively colour the sound too. And with a total of 80dB of gain on hand, it's possible to capture soft voices or more distant subjects cleanly. The small output knob on the far right of front panel means you opt either for a cleaner sound, or to drive the unit quite assertively and still pass on a signal at a sensible level for the next unit in the signal chain. The filter knob and input gain also snap as solidly into position as they should. Dual-concentric potentiometers are used for the EQ knobs, for example, and frequency knobs are firmly stepped, with the cut/boost knobs offering the ability to fine-tune the level at the selected frequency. The WA73‑EQ also has plenty of knobs and buttons, which may not add much by way of mass, but certainly contribute to the classy overall feel. Why does the Carnhill name matter? Well, you'll most commonly read about Marinair-branded transformers being used in the 1073 (and other Neve units) but another company, St Ives Windings, was a supplemental supplier for the input transformers, and theirs had the same specs. Carnhill later bought St Ives. Unpacking the review unit was more of a chore than I'd anticipated, largely because the WA73-EQ is so heavy! It comes in the form of a 1U 19-inch rackmount unit, and its reassuring weight is due to a combination of the thick-gauge casing, the large power supply, and the fact that the custom Carnhill transformers are not only fairly expensive models considering the overall asking price, but are hefty ones too. The result is the WA73-EQ, which, as the name suggests, is a recreation of the Neve 1073 mic, line and instrument preamp and features an EQ section too. Warm Audio specialise in producing budget-friendly versions of iconic recording hardware, cutting as few corners as possible in the process, so perhaps it was inevitable that they'd release their own take on this particular classic. That's something that, thankfully, has changed in recent years, as a number of more wallet-friendly homages to the 1073 have come on to the market. But both the rackmounted originals and the boutique clones remained pricey. The supply of sacrificial donor consoles available for mutilation and amputation naturally became increasingly limited, and various companies began issuing recreations of Mr Neve's design to meet the growing demand. As tastes changed, engineers who loved 1073s (and other Neve modules) began stripping them out of consoles and had them racked up with power supplies so they could take them anywhere, and this practice became even more popular as more audio engineers started doing serious work in home and project studios. The size, materials and windings of transformers all have an effect on the electrical signals passing through the metal, and therefore on the sound of an audio signal. This module helped to define the 'British sound', in part due to the sonic contribution of the Marinair Radar input and output transformers. In 1970, Mr Neve developed a new module for the first 24-channel console to be installed in Britain - the Class-A 1073 preamp/EQ. If you find yourself in search of both colour and more gain, you could do worse than consider a preamp inspired by Rupert Neve's famous 1073. Others don't respond too well when they're being overdriven - they sound clean all the way up to the point of clipping and then sound.
Some, for example, don't have enough gain on hand to allow passive ribbon or dynamic mics to be used on anything other than drums and amps, or a good recording from a more distant condenser. While the mic preamps that are built into most modern audio interfaces work perfectly well most of the time, there are occasions when you might still want something a little more capable, or perhaps a little more colourful. Find out just how well this vintage recreation compares with the original that inspired it.
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