Atomic Analog Tonograf EQ (Pair) (B-Stock)

Ex-demo. Factory matched stereo pair. 

A fully discrete Equaliser unit with high and low shelves, the high of which has three frequency choices, and an inductive boost/cut mid-band with six frequency choices. The high and low shelves are gradual, and the mid band has proportional Q, meaning that minor boost or cut results in a very broad curve, while max gives a much narrower bell.

The unit is heavily based on the legendary TAB W95 Equaliser module from the early 1960s. Atomic Analog acquired one such rare unit and fell in love with both it's unique sound and it's unique design features. The discrete germanium circuit with it's four inductors and two transformers makes a blissful impression on all that you put through it. Push it’s levels to the limit and it saturates so wonderfully, not only within it’s inductors but also within the class A transistor circuits within.

What is rather unusual about the W95 is that it has all the design methods of earlier tube devices such as the V72 and V76 amplifiers, yet the designer adopted those to low voltage transistor circuitry. There was only a brief period where this seemed to be present, most likely when experienced design engineers were only becoming accustomed to designing with transistors rather than vacuum tubes. What results is a unit that produces a smooth and magical sonic imprint, regardless of whether you are actually boosting or cutting any frequencies or not.

But it was certainly no easy task to replicate this beauty. The inductors used within had to be analysed and custom pieces made by Atomic Analog's transformer supplier in the UK. The mid inductor is wound in-house on their own winding machine as the tolerances here directly impact the position of those mid frequency points. The original germanium transistors are pretty much unobtanium nowadays, so they had to do extensive trials of various surrogate NoS parts into the original TAB unit until they had something that behaved exactly as the originals did. A small number of features were added including an extra mid-band frequency, the ability to both cut or boost the mids (original is boost only), three frequency choices for the HF shelf, and a bypass switch. Other than that the original design is completely unchanged. Atomic Analog have also managed to employ the detented LF and HF controls as per the original which have a pleasant tactile feel to them.

The design utilises input and output transformers of the highest quality, made by Lundahl in Sweden. Panasonic, AVX and Vishay capacitors are used throughout, along with Vishay and Yageo resistors. The attention to detail in both build quality and sound quality is extensive, as is done with every Atomic Analog product.