Cranborne Audio 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
Cranborne Audio Camden 500 features “Mojo” – a custom analogue saturation circuit that transforms Cranborne Audio 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…
Impeccable Modern Clean Performance
Designed from the ground up by our director of engineering, Edward Holmes, Cranborne Audio Camden 500 was created to be the ultimate recording front-end for the modern studios and withstand the rigours of modern workflow and production techniques. Designed to excel with any input source, Camden 500 features a completely original, custom-designed preamp topology that achieves stunning low-noise and low-distortion performance and frequency/phase linearity at any gain setting from unity to 68.5dB.
Stepped Gain Control
Cranborne Audio Camden 500 features a premium, 12-way switch gain control that applies up to 68.5dB of clean, transparent preamp gain in 5.5dB steps. This makes it easy to recall gain settings and easy to match the gain of two Camden 500’s for stereo applications.
Stereo Matched
With carefully selected modern components, any two Camden preamps are completely stereo matched to within 0.1dB. Every Camden preamp also passes through a rigorous frequency response test at the factory that ensures it performs the same as the last.
Progressive-slope High Pass Filter
Camden’s high pass filter features a progressive slope where low end is rolled off initially at around 6dB/octave and then increases to 12dB for the lowest octave – preserving the low end you want, and cutting what you don’t.
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.
Vintage ‘Mojo’ On Tap
For moments when you want that gooey, vintage vibe on your recordings, we developed Mojo – our own custom analogue saturation circuit that adds the familiar tone of transformers, valves, and vintage equipment onto your Camden’s preamps for recording or mixing. Record through Mojo to add that vibe on the way into your DAW or add the Mojo during the mix phase – Mojo adds tons of analogue saturation to all audio signals.
Key Features
- Fully discrete, transformerless design featuring our custom ‘Camden’ preamp topology designed by our Director of Engineering – Edward Holmes
- Optimised for and fully compliant with the 500-series format
Camden 500 is not a 19” unit shoe-horned into a 500-series module, it has been designed from the ground-up to perform under the low-voltage power rails and supply current limitations of the 500-series format whilst delivering groundbreaking performance - Performs at the near-theoretical limits of noise, distortion, and phase/frequency linearity at all gain settings
EIN: <-129.5dBu, 150 ohm source, unweighted, <-135.5dBu, Inputs common, unweighted
THD+N: <0.0004%, 1kHz, 35dB gain, 24dBu out
Intermodulation Distortion: <0.0008%, 50Hz and 7kHz, 35dB gain, 20dBu 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 - Optimised input Impedance and input headroom for Mic, Line, and Hi-z sources
Mic Preamp, Instrument Di, and – thanks to Mojo – line-level analogue saturator - Custom ‘Mojo’ analogue saturation circuit with variable control, true bypass, and 2 discrete styles – Thump and Cream
Reamp tracks from your DAW through Mojo to apply analogue saturation to your stems, VST, and stereo mixes
Thump excites low-end content by boosting lower odd/even harmonics from a range of 160Hz to 20Hz and below
Cream boosts odd/even harmonics whilst also reducing the amplitude of the fundamental frequencies and applying typical transformer-style transient taming - Gold Flashing on backplane contacts for increased conductivity and durability
- Designed & Engineered in the United Kingdom
