Eighteen’s preamplifier circuit isn’t just another clone, but an original design built to pay proper tribute to some of the most classic designs ever made. The Eighteen starts with a Cinemag input transformer, but that’s far from where the magic stops. In order to get the absolute perfect sound we were looking to achieve with Eighteen meant a bit more work under the hood. This is where our new BLA1831 custom, discrete op-amp comes into play. Through an extensive period of component matching, we were able to create a custom op-amp that matched the vibe we were aiming for, while still matching a noise floor that is akin to modern equipment. The preamplifier also features polarity inverse, 48V phantom power, an 80Hz high-pass filter, and a 10kHz low-pass filter.