Earlier, Gearwire covered the AES appearance of the Grace Designs model 801 8-channel microphone preamp. Today we revisit that channel design in the m201, a 2-channel variant released this week from the Boulder Colorado-based signal path maker.

Grace preamps may be better known for what's not inside them than for what is. The m201 sports Grace's fully transformerless design, with a fast, musical transimpedance amplifier architecture. Also, no electrolytic capacitors are present in the signal path.

These circuit design choices help along the mission of making the units as trasnparent and musical as possible, ideal for use in remote, live or project studio applications.

A quick feature list:

• fully balanced, transformerless design
• fast, musical transimpedance amplifier architecture
• precision 24 position gold contact rotary switch gain controls
• 10dB output trim controls
• all electrical and mechanical design elements maximized for absolute purist, audiophile performance
• high current output drives long cable runs, loads down to 50Ohms
• 48V phantom power, 20 dB attenuator and phase reverse
• no electrolytic capacitors in the signal path
• sealed gold contact relays for all signal switching
• bi-color LED peak indicators
• regulated linear power supply with custom wound toroidal transformer
• highest quality metal film resistors used throughout
• five year warranty on parts and labor