The Stam SA-660 Stamchild recreates every drop of character of the original Fairchild 660 originally developed in the US in the early ‘50s. The original Fairchild 660 quickly became a key weapon at Abbey Road studios finding its way into almost all Beatles recordings where virtually every single vocal, drums and guitar takes when through this vintage tube compressor.
While developing this project we had two main objectives: first and foremost, the audio path had to remain as close as possible to the original units, and it had to be affordable. With this in mind we developed a few prototypes and carefully tested each component and its interaction with the circuit. After many months of research and test we determined there was a way, and so the Stam SA-660 Stamchild was born.
With the aid of premium transformer reproductions made by Brian Sowter in the UK and the use of eight NOS 6BA6 tubes and one 12AX7 tube, we have managed to make this unit virtually indistinguishable to the original. The Stam SA-660 Stamchild also uses a German made chassis and faceplate, as well as the historically correct VU meter, Knobs, and Neutrik XLR connectors.
In order to reduce the cost of manufacturing these units we have made some modern implementations which do not affect the audio path. We have changed the tube-based power supply to a solid state one, which we found had no bearing on the sound. We also changed the control amp to a hybrid setup maintaining the tube character.
With this measure we were able to greatly reduce the cost of production, while preserving the original tone, without touching the audio path, and without removing the character produced by the tube on the control amp.
