AMS Neve 33609 / N Stereo Compressor

33609/N

The World’s Finest Stereo Compressor, Bar None.

This desert island stereo compressor offers comprehensive limiting and compression facilities ideal for music recording, mastering, post-production and broadcast applications.

Marinair® Transformers

The 33609/N uses exclusive Marinair® specification transformers on the input, bridge-driver, sidechain and output stages – Neve® colour throughout.

Diode-Bridge Design
Neve® pioneered the diode-bridge compressor by exploiting the electrical properties of diodes and mounting them in a bridge configuration with carefully selected control voltages, allowing for distortion to be significantly reduced. This creates a unique gain reduction slope that produces compression from smooth to an overdriven hard-clipping style. These unique characteristics make the 33609 the ideal creative studio tool.

Class A/B Discrete
The 33609 design has gone through several iterations since its inception, each rendition improving from the last. As a result, the 33609/N takes the best features from the beloved 33609’s – such as balanced gain reduction circuitry, class A/B amplification. Additionally, the 33609/N has a discrete transformer-balanced output, evolved from the early Neve® console line output stages to produce a ‘sweet’ sound.

Stepped Controls
Every control on the 33609 is stepped, from threshold through to make up gain. These switched controls are great for stereo matching and session recall, ideal for mixing and mastering.

Independent Limiter & Compressor
The independent compressor and limiter circuitry gives ultimate dynamic control over transients. With the limiter input positioned after the compressors make up gain, the 33609 can be used as a creative tool with the limiter driven by the compressor’s output.

Feedback Compression
The 33609’s feedback-style compression feeds the compressors control signals back through the diode-bridge gain reduction circuit. This design introduces analogue non-linearities that form the unique character of  33609/N.

Mix Bus Glue
Compression can be perfectly tuned to fit a wide variety of program material with several switchable recovery times, including two auto-recovery options. The 33609/N slow attack feature reduces sensitivity to low frequencies by 6dB/octave at 100Hz, this tunes out kick drums and other low peaks that may otherwise trigger the compressor by just the right amount -mix bus glue.

Mono/Stereo/Linking
The 33609/N’s dual channels can be linked in stereo or used independently as separate channels at the flip of a switch. For larger groups of instruments, multiple 33609/N’s can connect with ease via the tandem control voltage connection; each unit’s bypass, mono/stereo switch & compressor in/out switch can be remotely controlled.

Stereo Gain Reduction Metering
Independent moving coil gain reduction meters display up to -20dB of gain reduction for each channel.

True Bypass
The 33609/N includes a true straight-through bypass, which connects the input terminals directly to the output terminals, ideal for auditioning compression by A/B’ing wet/dry signals.

General Specification

• Two legendary 1073® microphone preamps in a convenient 1U rackmount design
• Exclusive Neve® Marinair® transformers used on input and output stages
• Superior Neve-designed analogue-to-digital 24-bit converters
• 192Khz operation with DSD conversion, selectable via front-panel controls
• Dedicated input Gain controls and output Trim controls on both channels
• +48V Phantom Power and Phase Reverse switch
• High-quality Input Selector switch
• Hand-crafted and hand-wired by Neve in Burnley, UK

Audio Performance

• Input Impedance: Mic – Switchable, 300 or 1200 Ohms  – Line – 20k Ohms
• Frequency Response: 60dB gain into 600 Ohms 20Hz to 20kHz +/- 0.5dB
• EIN: Mic 60dB gain <-125dB (22 Hz to 22 kHz bandwidth)
• THD+Noise: +20dBu into 600 Ohms <0.07% (50Hz to 10kHz) (80 kHz bandwidth)
• A/D Converter Frequency Response: Input Impedance 20k Ohms 48kHz +/-1.25dB <10Hz to 20kHz – 96kHz +/-1dB <10Hz to 40kHz – 192kHz +/-1dB <10Hz to >40kHz
• Dynamic Range >106dB

Dimensions

• Width: 482mm (19 inches)
• Height: 45mm (1.75 inches) (1U)
• Depth: 254mm (10 inches)
• Weight: 5kg (11 pounds)