Cranborne Audio CAMDEN 500 Preamp

About: Cranborne Audio CAMDEN 500 Preamp

Camden 500 is the most astoundingly clean, linear, transparent preamp you’ve ever heard. But it also has “Mojo” - 2 discrete custom analogue saturation circuits that can be applied, exaggerated, and perhaps best of all - bypassed.

Clean, Precise, and Natural
Camden 500 provides the utmost clarity and detail when it is most required. Its custom 'Camden' topology achieves stunning low-noise and low-distortion performance: -129.8dB EIN (150ohm, unweighted) and THD+N as low as 0.0002%.  It also sets a new standard for frequency and phase linearity: ±0.7dB frequency response from 5Hz to 200kHz at max gain and <2° phase shift @ 50Hz – 20kHz. The sum result is the most natural sounding preamp you've ever heard.

Vintage, Warm, and Coloured
Camden 500 features "Mojo" - a custom analogue saturation circuit that transforms Camden 500 into the fattest, warmest, most colourful mic preamp in your arsenal. Designed to introduce harmonics and saturation effects that our favourite vintage gear produces, Mojo can be subtle, it can be exaggerated, but best of all it can be bypassed...

Custom Topology

Featuring a custom *transformerless front-end topology with 68.5dB of gain, Camden 500 achieves groundbreaking performance in noise, distortion, frequency response, and phase shift throughout all 12 gain positions.

3-Way Input Type Switch

Tailored input impedance and headroom for Mic, Line, and Hi-Z sources means punchy and full-range line recording with +26.5dBu of input headroom as well as alive and natural sounding DI'd instruments with it's unique BJT design and 1.5M Ohm input impedance.

Manufactured In The UK

To ensure that every product that bears our name lives up to the extraordinary performance that we quote, all of our products are carefully manufactured and tested in the UK under our watchful eyes.

Mojo Analogue Saturation

To compliment the clean front-end of the Camden 500, we built a brand-new type of saturation circuit consisting of an array of filters and discrete second and third order harmonic generators that allow precise emulation of the saturation and frequency reinforcement behaviours of vintage equipment. Mojo can be also exaggerated to far beyond the point where destructive clipping would occur with transformer-based designs for an even wider palette of saturation effects.

By manipulating these filters and harmonic generators; we can create two discrete Mojo styles; Thump and Cream. Both styles transform Camden 500 into the fattest, warmest, and most characterful preamp in your arsenal - all at the turn of a dial.

Tech Specs

Put simply, Camden 500 is one of the cleanest, most linear, and transparent preamps on the market. Our new ‘Camden’ preamp topology allows us to push the boundaries of Frequency response, phase shift, noise, and THD performance; and we have all the specs to back that up.

• EIN: <-129.5dBu, 150 ohm source, unweighted <-135.5dBu, Inputs common, unweighted
• THD+N: <0.0004%, 1kHz, 35dB gain, 24dBu out
• Phase Shift: <2.25°, 40dB gain, 20Hz to 20kHz, <4°, Max gain, 20Hz to 20kHz
• Freq. Response: <±1dB, <5 Hz to >200 kHz, all gain settings
• CMRR: >70dB, typ >85dB, 35dB Gain, 10-20kHz, 100mV Common mode