Rupert Neve Designs 517 500 Series  

At the 2010 AES Convention, Rupert Neve Designs announced the company’s first foray into the 500 Series with the Portico 517 Pre/DI/Comp module. Based on the Portico 5017 Mobile Pre, the 517 provides world class, transformer-coupled preamp, compressor and DI circuitry, with Vari-phase, Silk and DI/mic blending capabilities for $950 U.S. list.

As with other Portico Series modules, the 517 provides industry leading sonic performance with a versatile feature set capable of functioning in many different capacities. The same engineer could use a 517 as an inexpensive means to add new high-end analogue mic amplification, instrument amplification, vari-phase adjustment and compression to his or her studio while also utilizing the 517′s unique DI/preamp blending functionality. The Portico 517 is like a Swiss army knife for the lunchbox.

For Rupert Neve Designs Marketing Director, Tristan Rhodes, the move into the 500 series makes perfect sense: “Engineers have been requesting that Rupert design modules for the 500 Series for years now, and with the 517 we’ve developed a module that really takes the format to its limits. To be able to offer a Rupert Neve Designs preamplifier, instrument amplifier and compressor with the same transformers as the 5017 in a 500 Series module is simply tremendous.”

The Portico 517′s microphone and instrument amplifiers provide the sweet, musical response expected from a Rupert Neve design. With ultra-low distortion, exceptional bandwidth and the flexibility of Silk, the 5017′s amplifiers can faithfully reproduce and even enhance every detail captured by a microphone or instrument.

Based around a new LDR (light dependent resister) design, the 517′s opto-coupler compressor has been simplified to a single threshold control with auto make-up gain and a fixed 2:1 ratio. To set the compressor, simply dial the threshold control down until the desired amount of compression is achieved. A built-in LED indicates when the compressor is active.

Used as a single channel device for instruments, the 517 can be used to phase align, combine and compress direct and amplified signals. To achieve this, the instrument’s direct signal is sent to the DI input and the speaker cabinet signal via the mic preamp input. The blend control is used for mixing direct and amplified signals to achieve the desired tonal blend between the two sources, and the Vari-phase control is used to minimize or attenuate phase cancellations between the two signals. The compressor can be applied to both channels. This technique could also be used to create a single, mixed output of a guitar and vocals or any other pair of sources.

Founded by Rupert and Evelyn Neve, Rupert Neve Designs is built on passion, experience and a desire to create products embodying the highest musical quality. In continuing his legacy as a pioneer in audio circuit design, Mr. Rupert Neve is currently focusing his talents on creating innovative solutions to the issues facing the modern recording engineer.

Features

• Silk: Much could be written about this feature, suffice to say, that it gives a subtle option to enhance sound quality in the direction of vintage modules. The silk button reduces negative feedback and adjusts the frequency spectrum to provide a very sweet and musical performance. We suggest you try it and make your own judgment.
• Mic Gain: Mic gain is from 0dB to 66dB. Overall gain to restore the apparent program level
• DI Gain: DI Gain is from 0dB to 30dB
• DI input: Balanced or unbalanced Hi-Z input for instruments
• Phantom power: Provides 48v phantom power to microphones. Controlled by the 48V switch.
• Polarity reverse: Reverses the polarity of the mic input
• Threshold: When signals exceed the "threshold" level, the gain is reduced at a controlled 2:1 ratio, with fixed attack and release time constants.
• Indicators: Indicators on the 517 denote signal presence and clipping on both DI and mic signals, as well as compressor activation.

Specifications

• Frequency Response: Main Output, no load, –0.2 dB @ 10 Hz –3 dB @ 160 kHz
• Noise: Measured at Main Output, unweighted, 22Hz-22kHz, Terminated 150 Ohms. With gain at unity better than –100 dBu With gain at 66 dB better than –62 dBu Equivalent Input Noise better than –128 dBu Noise Factor 1.5dB
• Maximum Output Level: Maximum output from 20 Hz to 40 kHz is +23 dBu.
• Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise: @ 1kHz, +20 dBu output: Main Output: Better than 0.001% @ 20Hz, +20 dBu output: Main Output: Better than 0.002% Silk Engaged: Better than 0.2% Second harmonic
• Crosstalk: Measured channel to channel: Better than –90 dB @ 15kHz.
• Phantom Power: +48 Volts DC +/- 1%