Warm Audio WA273-EQ

British

The warm audio 73eq channels

Are fantastic

Sounding, i really like the transformers in this and the large buttons on the Interface.

The recall settings

On the eq frequencies are so handy to have.

I use this on my stereo bus on my mixer.

Excellent sounding mic pre and eq

Pros:

Looks and sounds a lot like a Neve 1073!

warm and punchy with plenty of character, the eq is superb!

If anything a little tighter in the bass than the neve version

and brilliant as a di for bass!

Cons:

some of the controls are a bit stiffer than others on first use

but with regular use things become more normal so there is sort of a breaking in period, the switches do feel a little lighter than on the ams variety and the led's are a bit cheap looking but those are minor gripes and nothing that affects the sound in use or caused any issues in well over a year of regular studio use so far,

it does it's job and does it well

overall:

sonically top notch, generally well built and the eq is very musical,

the pre by itself sounds solid and punchy

but the eq makes it really shine,

It seems warm put the bulk of the money into the signal path and eq section of this and you can tell because it sounds as good as it looks,

overall a solid alternative to the ams variety of 1073 mic pre :)

Great sounding, versatile and well built

Very happy with this unit. The build quality is reassuringly solid and the layout intuitive. Apart from it's obvious use as a (pair of) mic pre(s), I've also been taking advantage of the line inputs to use it as an insert effect. In both scenarios it's been performed well on a variety of sources and so far has been particularly impressive with acoustic instruments- nylon and steel strung guitars, mandolins, etc. The amp section sounds good, thck and solid, and the EQ benefits from some additional bands not found on the original from which the WA 73 takes it's inspiration. All in all a great bit of Kit for the price, certainly a major step up from working with 1073 style plugins.

Exceptional, affordable neve-style pre/eq

Using this on nearly everything. Shines on ribbon mics, but the DI getting fed back through the mic pre is really smart and adds great air and colour to synths and drum machines.

Beautiful, familiar 1073 layout and colour and the build seems very high standard, but one of the EQ knobs is a little stiffer than the rest.

Highly recommended, having also tried the other similar clones. Particularly impressive at this price point.