Recording - September 2013 - 39

favorites; there were no sources I would
steer away from—making it a good allaround mic preamp.
Sonically I would place it in the classic
console-pre category, but trending toward
a thicker vintage sound. It’s clean, but has
a nice touch of low-mid heft, with a forward
upper-mid section as well. Unlike
many classic mic pres, reissue or otherwise, its 66 dB of gain also puts it
in good company with many of the
upper-end boutique and clean fare
like Millennia, Grace, and AEA, not
in sound but in handling.
As a British-style preamp I compared it side-by-side with a preamp
by Great River Electronics that, while
not a full-on Neve 1073 clone or
actually British, is widely considered
to be in that sonic family. They were
fairly different, with the Great River
being more forward and open in the top
and overall tighter sounding.
The Sonora 2 was a touch darker in the
top end, and was closer in tone to my
Chandler/EMI TG-2 (also of British tradition). Both units had a similar thick forwardness to them, but being nitpicky, the
TG-2 was more forward in its upper mids,
and switching to the Sonora 2 had more
of a baseline mid punch. Overall, though,
they sounded cut from the same cloth.

The instrument input was functional and
clean, working well on bass and other standard DI sources, but I admit it didn’t thrill me
as much as the preamp did on mic signals.
There are preamps that are actually better
as DIs, but with a mic—any mic!—is where
the Sonora 2 shows off its magic.

for most typical recording scenarios at normal levels it won’t be a problem. In fact, on
most sources like vocals, drums and electric
guitar, I spent most of my time with the unit’s
pad engaged, which is to say the Sonora
2 is nice and loud with tons of headroom.
Wrap up
All in all, Sontronics has come up
with a really nice box. It is well built
and well thought out. The size and
form factor make it versatile and
portable, its high gain means it
should not meet a microphone it does
not like, and it has a tone it can claim
for itself while still holding its own as
the new kid in the Royal Family of
British Microphone Preamps.
It’s always refreshing to find a mic
pre that has a sound and yet can still
be utilitarian enough to be used on
any source, in any genre, with any microphone. Good job, Sontronics... now, when
is the all-British Chimera 2 making its debut?
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...!

The Sonora 2 really plays
no favorites; there were no
sources I would steer away
from—making it a good allaround mic preamp.
Big and loud
With 66 dB of gain there was no mic in my
collection that the Sonora 2 could not handle
with ease, from ribbons to dynamics to valve
mics—you name it. It even did my low-output
dynamic Shure SM7 proud and was able to
handle ribbon mics for voiceover work.
Like many preamps, the Sonora 2 will
exhibit a touch of elevated noise floor as
you move up into the 54–66 dB gain range
with a low-output mic on a quiet source, but

Price: $1175 ($999 street)
More from: Sontronics, www.sontronics
.com; dist. in USA by Professional
Audio Distribution, www.proaudio
distribution.com.

http://www.sontronics.com http://www.sontronics.com http://www.proaudiodistribution.com http://www.proaudiodistribution.com http://www.fullcompass.com http://www.fullcompass.com

Recording - September 2013

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