SPL Goldmike 9844

I have this device for 1,5 year now. I have used it for recording vocals, drumkit overheads, percussion microphones.

First of all, the clarity of the SPL Goldmike 9844 is very good. It provides a clean boost, esp. necessary for dynamic microphones such as Shure SM 7. Using it as an additional preamp for condenser mic (I have tried, for example, Mojave 301 FET) is mostly not necessary as the mic is already quite sensitive, preamps on the mixer were enough in my case. In another scenario, I was recording percussion with a pair of Aston Starlights, got crispy and clear sound with the preamp.

Regarding controls, the FLAIR button is useless. It is a preset equalization and I did not find application for that.

Now the cons. SPL Goldmike 9844 is very-very-very picky to the power network interference. I had noise problems, which I tried to figure out with Thomann (thanks for the awesome support as always!). I have tried Furman M-10x E. Did not work. In the end, I run the preamp through the UPS + a custom network filter after it. That reduced noise by 20-30 db and kept it on a tolerable level. I have recently discovered that the noise was simply from the powerline connector (Ethernet over power network). If you are buying this device you have to make sure, that your power network is flawless, otherwise you will have LOTS of noise in the recording.

You shouldn't buy this unit because you have seen the word 'tube' on it. But you should buy it for plenty of other reasons.
Although it does have a single tube on each channel, this only contributes a small amount of fixed gain to the overall sound, so it doesn't really have that typical sound you would associate with all tube preamps.

It does have exceptional distortion and noise stats, giving a very pure and clean signal, with a whopping 72dB of gain availabale. I liked that.

VU meters are incredibly small, to the point of almost being un-useful.
The 'flair' switch is a very fun feature, which is quite well described by it's name..

I used this mainly for passing stereo mixes through rather than a mic preamp, or for make up gain on passive summing boxes/EQ, as it does have a very special quality, but there are other, better preamps available.

The price point is excellent however, and you would be hard pressed to find a better spec'd 2 channel preamp for this.

I'm very pleased with the SPL Goldmic for many reasons, not just the superb sound. The build quality is excellent. The slightly over sized dials on the front feel great and are easy to use. The pad button was very useful for use on drum overheads.

So far I've used it on drum overheads (using the recorderman set up), several amps, vocals and percussion instruments and it has performed fantastically well on every task.

The gain stage is crystal clear and there's very low noise. It's incredibly easy to set up straight out of the box and start making your recordings sound great.

I've so far used it with a pair of oktava mk 012 mics that I used on a drum tracking session and the sound was amazing, a great stereo image, lots of pristine highs that weren't harsh and a lovely bottom end that wasn't muddy. The vocal sound with a Rode NT2 was warm and needed very little EQ to fit it into a mix.

I would definitely recommend it and will soon be adding another into my studio.

One thing worth noticing is that there's no instrument input which if you are a home recording enthusiast you might want to consider but honestly this sounds so good I'd go for it anyway.

Feature-wise, and price-wise this preamp is a very good deal. The starved plate design actually does something interesting, although I must say that it doesn't work well for all sources. I like it on vocals and anything without strong transients. It is pecussion and guitars that I think don't sound so excellent through this preamp as the starved-tube stage colors the sound quite a bit and introduces subtle peaks and notches in the sound and also a subtle phasing effect. The flair function is actually a genious thing. It is very useful on vocals, especially when recorded with dynamic mics. The metering is nice, also and the knobs feel very sturdy and have a nice resistance to them, so twisting them is very pleasurable. Cosmetically it also looks very nice.

Lately, I owned only a cheapest available rack preamp which did unsatisified my demands. When I searched for replacement for it, Goldmike 9844 seems to be right one.

Firstly ordered unit came in with defective VU meter. It was not a big deal, while Thomann replaced it with new by the fly.

After receiving this beauty I was nicely surprised how awesome it pick sounds. Very easy to use, without unnecessary bells and whistles. As visible there are built-in mimimalistic metrics. But it`s not a big trouble for me, while I have ART VLA compressor in rack chain which has gigant VU meters.

Goldmike really helps me to make my home studio to the new level, by recording live sources. Not just friendly for the budget, but this unit is worth the investment. Remember, this is only SPL entry level preamp.

Pro studio use. Used on vocals, guitars and overheads.
Really great tube sounding, no muddiness as some other pres introduce. Although it's a hybrid pre (solid state and tube), it really has a nice sound. The Flair option is a really cool one, getting a smooth brightness and presence to make the instrument come out in the mix.
VU meter's a little small but looks cool. The design of the pre is really cool if you dig some vintage and analog hardware.

Tested with SM 57, Sontronics STC-1, Schoeps MK, AKG P220. Tested on a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20.

The only downside is that it came in a box with little protection.

Bottom line, I like a lot this preamp.

This is a "must have" item in a medium to large home studio. So I bought a second one.
Perfect tone, transparent preamp, which I extensively use for drum overheads condenser mikes as well as kick and snare dynamic mikes, thanks to the second unit. I also use the TL Audio preamps which bring more color and drive...

Un "must have" dans un home studio moyen-haut de gamme !
Le son est pur, transparent, sans coloration, contrairement à mes TL Audio qui donnent du grain et colorent beaucoup plus.
J'uttilise 1 SPL Goldmike pour la paire de micros statiques AKG-C430 (overhead batterie) et le deuxième SPL GM pour les micros dynamiques de la GC (AKG D-112) et de la CC (SM-57) de la batterie.