Rupert Neve Designs MBT

Rupert Neve Designs MBT

Rupert Neve Designs MBT

Rupert Neve Designs MBT

MBT:Master Bus Transformer

SKU: RND-MBT
MSRP: $3,999.00
MAP: $3,999.00

Overview

Transform your tone.

For over six decades, audio transformers have been the bedrock of Mr. Rupert Neve’s audio circuit design philosophy – and Rupert Neve Designs’ bespoke transformers are an integral part of virtually every RND product.

Packed with these transformers, the MBT provides an incredible array of flavorful options designed to sweeten, enhance, drive, widen, and utterly transform source material, making it the ultimate tool for musical coloration.

Create Tonal Magic with the Shelf EQ

With 3 octave ranges, gentle slopes and minimal phase shifts, the all-new 2-band Shelf EQ section was created with an emphasis on simplicity and elegance. This smooth & musical EQ is excellent at providing just the right amount of tonal enhancement – especially when it is interacting with the other sections of the MBT.

Breathe In New Life with the Color Comp

With an all-new optical compressor design, the Color Comp excels at accentuating the non-linear distortion and “colorful” characteristics of the Opto cell to bring source material a new sense of life and depth.

The Color Comp includes two selectable ratios, a sweepable high pass side-chain filter, variable threshold and release, 20dB of Class-A makeup gain, and a Blend control for parallel processing.

Find New Dimension with Width

The Width section is designed to increase the perceived stereo spread without losing low-end focus.

While inspired by the Stereo Field Editor (SFE) “WIDTH” controls found on our award-winning Master Buss Processor, the MBT’s Width section has several key differences:

  • The Width control on the MBT is additive only, with a greater range for more extreme operation.
  • There is a variable high-pass filter (50Hz to 800Hz) to adjust the Width content, so that low frequencies remain more centered in the mix as the mids and highs are spread out to create more space.
  • Additionally, there is subtle high frequency tapering of the Width content to avoid overemphasizing harsher HF tones.

Features

FRONT PANEL FEATURES

INPUT LEVEL: LED indication that illuminates GREEN when the input signal reaches -20dBu and illuminates RED to show when the input signal reaches +23dBu. This indication is post input trim control.

INPUT TRIM: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the input level within a range of +/- 12dB.

HPF FREQ: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the HPF frequency within a range of 15Hz to 100Hz.

HPF IN: Push-button switch that illuminates GREEN when the 6dB/octave HPF is engaged.

LF: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the Low Frequency Shelf gain within a range of +/- 9dB.

LF FREQ: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the Low Frequency Shelf corner frequency within a range of 30Hz to 240Hz.

HF: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the High Frequency Shelf gain within a range of +/- 9dB.

HF FREQ: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the High Frequency Shelf corner frequency within a range of 3kHz to 24kHz.

EQ IN: Push-button switch that illuminates GREEN when the equalizer section is engaged.

THRESHOLD: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the compressor threshold within a range of +24dBu to 0dBu.

S/C HPF: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the corner frequency of the side-chain high-pass filter within a range of 20Hz to 350Hz.

COMP IN: Push-button switch that illuminates GREEN when the compressor section is engaged.

GAIN REDUCTION: LED that illuminates GREEN when gain reduction is occuring. The LED indicates compression for left and right channels.

RELEASE: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the Release time of the compressor within a range of 100mS to 1.5S.

RATIO: Opaque push-button switch that toggles between a LO (OUT) 2:1 ratio and a HI (IN) 5:1 compressor ratio curve.

BLEND: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the amount of dry (0%) vs. wet (100%) compressed signal in the audio path.

GAIN: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the amount of compressor make-up gain within a range of 0dB to +20dB.

WIDTH IN: Push-button switch that illuminates GREEN when the WIDTH section is engaged.

WIDTH HPF: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the corner frequency of the width processing HPF within a range of 50Hz to 800Hz.

WIDTH: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the amount of Width stereo field processing within a range of MIN to MAX.

SILK IN: Push-button switch that illuminates PURPLE when the SUPER SILK section is engaged.

BLUE: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the amount of low frequency SILK pre-emphasis.

DRIVE: LED that illuminates RED when the signal level reaches the optimal range for transformer harmonics. The LED indicates drive level for left and right channels.

RED: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the amount of high frequency SILK pre-emphasis.

HARMONICS: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the amount of transformer harmonics added to the audio path.

ZENER DRIVE: Push-button switch that illuminates AMBER when the soft clip circuitry is engaged.

BYPASS ALL: Push-button switch that illuminates RED when the master bypass is engaged. This master bypass is a true hard- wire bypass that ensures the MBT will pass audio in the event that power is lost.

OUTPUT TRIM: 31-detent potentiometer that controls the amount of output trim within a range of +/- 12dB.

OUTPUT METERS: Stereo 16-segment LED meters that indicate output level in dBu.

POWER: LED that illuminates GREEN when POWER is ON.

REAR PANEL FEATURES

POWER: IEC standard 3 pin grounded switched AC power inlet with an input range of 100-240 VAC. 70 Watts maximum AC power consumption.

GND LIFT: Slide switch that lifts XLR Output Pin 1 from chassis ground to minimize ground loops.

OUTPUT: Balanced XLR outputs with custom Rupert Neve Designs transformers capable of handling up to +25.5 dBu at 1kHz.

INPUT: Balanced XLR combo jack inputs capable of handling up to +25.5 dBu at 1kHz.

Specifications

 

Note: All measurements typical; All measurements recorded using 25ft. XLR output cables with Balanced ZSOURCE = 40 ohm

Input Impedance: 10 kilohm

No Features Engaged

Noise (22 Hz - 22kHz): Better than -95 dBu

THD+N (0 dBu @ 1kHz): Better than 0.004%

THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%

Maximum Input Level: +25.5 dBu

Crosstalk @ 1 kHz: Better than -95 dB
Frequency Response:

  • <5 Hz - 30 kHz: +/- 0.1 dB
  • <5 Hz - 60 kHz: +/- 0.25 dB
  • <5 Hz - 180 kHz: -3 dB

HPF Engaged

  • Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -95 dBu
  • THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%

Equalizer Engaged

  • Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -93dBu
  • THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%

Compressor Engaged

  • Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -92dBu
  • THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%

Width Engaged

  • Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -88dBu
  • THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%

SILK Engaged

  • Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -95dBu
  • THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.003%

WEIGHTS & DIMENSIONS

  • Product Dimensions (W x D x H): 19” (48.3 cm) x 10.125” (25.7 cm) x 3.5” (8.9 cm)
  • Shipping Dimensions (L x W x H): 22” (55.9 cm) x 18” (45.7 cm) x 8.7” (22.1 cm)
  • Shipping Weight: 17 lbs. (7.7 kg)