It was the now distant 2015 when, intrigued by this new Spanish company, I bought a pair of Heritage Audio 73jr 500 almost sight unseen and I must say that the results were clearly higher than expected, also considering the price (unfortunately no longer that of the era from time ..).
According to the company's claims, the 73jr was the closest possible replica of a three-stage Class A 73 mic pre-amplifier, and indeed they weren't wrong. The input and output transformers were manufactured at the plant Carnhill of Oxford, in England, exclusively for Heritage Audio (therefore not the "stock" ones that almost all pro audio manufacturers now mount) and, according to the manufacturer, they make up a large part of that sound, especially at the input, the same transformers also present in the modules of the 80 series. After the excellent success achieved by this first series, the Spanish company has further updated what was already an excellent product.
Heritage Audio 73JR II
Basically, the product remains identical to the previous one with the addition of a high pass filter discrete class A which can now be infinitely adjusted from 20 a 220 Hz, helping better management of low frequencies during shooting. For the rest are always present, the low impedance selection button, the line control that allows the realm of already recorded tracks giving them a bit of coloration, phantom and polarity inversion. The entrance DI also on this version it automatically switches from microphone to DI once a mono jack cable is inserted. The historical control of Marconi gain in steps of 5db, that thanks to the three stages of gain, also in this case the total gain of the preamplifier is well 80db with an Equivalent Input Noise of -125db, while in the case of line sources, the gain will be 50db. Finally we have the very useful output control with a second ring that adjusts the high pass filter.
Test
Although I had studied over the years the use of the 73jr, i tried to test this 73jrII totally from scratch. The sources tested were the most diverse, as were the microphones used, both dynamic and ribbon and condenser. In a second phase a matched pair was used DPA 4090 and one of Neumann u87 to see the difference between the series 73jr la JrIIfollowed by using a single microphone, splitting the signal on both preamplifiers (not a very orthodox procedure, but all possible creativity was given vent).
The result? Always identical… the difference between the two models is, to the ears of various blind test listeners, absolutely imperceptible, I can say it is almost non-existent. This obviously until the high pass filter is used which clearly turns out to be different from the old filter present on the 73jr series which had a cutoff frequency preset at 80hz. Going beyond the simple comparison between the two units, beyond the classic vocal or acoustic instrument recordings, I use it a lot to record excellent bass lines.
It's amazing how you have to do absolutely nothing, plug it in, find a suitable input value and you get that classic fat british sound which has been so successful over the years and by slightly saturating the input you also get a pleasant distortion that emphasizes the mid range. Another classic use to experiment with this series of preamps is the recording of electric guitars where, in addition to a notable roundness on the lows, the focus obtained on the medium\high frequencies should be underlined. Seeing is believing.
Technical Considerations Heritage Audio Audio 73 JR II
The techniques employed by Heritage Audio for the Audio 73JR II model are of great interest. In particular, the sound result of the whole 500 Heritage series is due for about 80% to the transformers. Furthermore, Heritage Audio has adopted an innovative solution for the 500 series, as instead of replicating the 1073, they have decided to use the original Neve circuitry, rectifying dual voltage of API standard +16 -16 in a single 02,25 power supply. This probably gives the outboard a sound identical to the original. Finally, for the Audio 73JR II model, special attention has been paid to power management, with the implementation of internal +24V slow firing regulation, which takes approximately 20 seconds to reach full voltage in the slots.
In conclusion
This series of 73 JR II gives us what is closest to the sound Snow 1073 which has been talked about so much in recent years. Many companies have made several replicas, Neve itself still produces its own version, but I honestly find that this series is among the best around for value for money. Nothing to do with the series Heritage Elite o super 8, which is nothing but a cross between the 500 series and the Elite series, its alter-ego remains the rack series DMA 73, but I challenge anyone to find differences between a 500 module inserted in a Heritage Audio frame with On Slot technology available where each slot has its own linear regulation phases of the power supply; therefore the modules are isolated from the rest and the DMA series.
Useful Information
Product: Heritage Audio 73JR II
Italian distributor: Midimusic SRL
Price: € 899
User Manual (EN): Heritage Audio 73JR II manual
