Recording - June 2013 - 43

There is a huge number of trimpots
inside the box, making it clear that offset
and symmetry are being hand-set individually on each unit at the factory. There is
some servo control going on in there too.
The gain controls are indeed genuine
stepped attenuators, very nicely made with
a lot of steps. And there was a very clean
Jensen output transformer, known for its
ability to produce low distortion into a variety of different loads without worrying
about termination. The internal layout is
modular with common AMP connectors,
which makes service work a lot easier than
it would be on many modern designs. The
power supply is oversized, aggressively
regulated, and has a lot of line filtering.
Overall, the layout and design are
impressive and carefully done, and it’s clear
that building something like this in today’s
world is very much a labour of love,

because it’s clearly designed for the longterm, to be easily maintained and to be reliable. I so seldom see gear like this today,
because people aren’t willing to invest what
it takes to do things right most of the time. I
do worry about long-term support for products like this because, without complete service documentation, it’s difficult to repair
them properly, and when you have a product designed to last a century, sooner or
later someone other than the manufacturer is
going to have to work on it.
Frequency and impulse response tests
looked good; you could see enough of a little ringing peak on a 1 kHz square wave to
believe that there was a transformer in
there, but you’d have to look very closely on
the scope to see anything. I tested RF susRECORDING June 2013

43

ceptability in two ways: first of all by keying
up a 1 W walkie-talkie on 146 MHz near
the microphone, and secondly by using it in
the broadcast studio of a 1500W AM radio
station. Both tests seemed fine. None of this
is conclusive since it’s not an exhaustive test
of all possible frequencies, but it’s a good
basic sanity check. The gain controls
matched to less than 0.2 dB in the middle of
the adjustment range; I am not equipped to
measure more accurately than that!
Summary
The Ingram MPA685 sounds good, as
clean and neutral as a transformer-coupled preamplifier can be, but it has some
of that sense of blending that good transformer designs give you. It is built to last

a long time, so the comparatively high
purchase cost may seem fairly small over
the lifetime of the preamp.
This is the kind of preamplifier I want to
see more of in our world. It does what it’s
supposed to do and it doesn’t add much
else to the sound. It has a lot of Swiss-armyknife style features that can be very handy
in a modern studio. And it’s built with care
and to last several lifetimes.
Price: $1650
More from: Ingram Engineering,
www.ingramengineering.net
Scott Dorsey (dorsey@recordingmag.com)
loves it when gear manufacturers get it right.


http://www.ingramengineering.net http://www.gracedesign.com

Recording - June 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2013

Recording - June 2013
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
SXSW 2013—From Guerilla To Gorilla
Finding Fault
Reviewed & Revisited: Ableton Live 9 and Push
Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A Classic Leveler Collection for UAD-2
Apogee Quartet
Reviewed & Revisited: Steinberg Cubase 7
Mock-Up Magic
Reviewed & Revisited: MOTU Digital Performer 8
Ingram Engineering MPA685
Reviewed & Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.5
Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X2
Readers’ Tapes
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 18: Headphones—Part 1
Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
For Your Bookshelf
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - June 2013 - Intro
Recording - June 2013 - Recording - June 2013
Recording - June 2013 - Cover2
Recording - June 2013 - 1
Recording - June 2013 - 2
Recording - June 2013 - 3
Recording - June 2013 - Fade In
Recording - June 2013 - 5
Recording - June 2013 - Contents
Recording - June 2013 - 7
Recording - June 2013 - Talkback
Recording - June 2013 - 9
Recording - June 2013 - Fast Forward
Recording - June 2013 - 11
Recording - June 2013 - 12
Recording - June 2013 - 13
Recording - June 2013 - SXSW 2013—From Guerilla To Gorilla
Recording - June 2013 - 15
Recording - June 2013 - Finding Fault
Recording - June 2013 - 17
Recording - June 2013 - 18
Recording - June 2013 - 19
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Ableton Live 9 and Push
Recording - June 2013 - 21
Recording - June 2013 - 22
Recording - June 2013 - 23
Recording - June 2013 - Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A Classic Leveler Collection for UAD-2
Recording - June 2013 - 25
Recording - June 2013 - 26
Recording - June 2013 - 27
Recording - June 2013 - Apogee Quartet
Recording - June 2013 - 29
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Steinberg Cubase 7
Recording - June 2013 - 31
Recording - June 2013 - 32
Recording - June 2013 - 33
Recording - June 2013 - Mock-Up Magic
Recording - June 2013 - 35
Recording - June 2013 - 36
Recording - June 2013 - 37
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: MOTU Digital Performer 8
Recording - June 2013 - 39
Recording - June 2013 - 40
Recording - June 2013 - 41
Recording - June 2013 - Ingram Engineering MPA685
Recording - June 2013 - 43
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.5
Recording - June 2013 - 45
Recording - June 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X2
Recording - June 2013 - 47
Recording - June 2013 - 48
Recording - June 2013 - 49
Recording - June 2013 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - June 2013 - 51
Recording - June 2013 - 52
Recording - June 2013 - 53
Recording - June 2013 - 54
Recording - June 2013 - 55
Recording - June 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 18: Headphones—Part 1
Recording - June 2013 - 57
Recording - June 2013 - Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Recording - June 2013 - 59
Recording - June 2013 - 60
Recording - June 2013 - 61
Recording - June 2013 - 62
Recording - June 2013 - 63
Recording - June 2013 - For Your Bookshelf
Recording - June 2013 - Advertiser Index
Recording - June 2013 - 66
Recording - June 2013 - 67
Recording - June 2013 - 68
Recording - June 2013 - 69
Recording - June 2013 - 70
Recording - June 2013 - 71
Recording - June 2013 - Fade Out
Recording - June 2013 - Cover3
Recording - June 2013 - Cover4
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