The Chandler Limited Germanium is a single channel microphone preamplifier and a direct input box. It has both XLR microphone inputs and outputs and 1/4 inch input to plug your instrument directly into. It is a rackable unit and it will take up a single rack space. UTILIZATION The general configuration of the Germanium preamp is easy to follow, and is just about as simple as you can get with a preamplifier. You've got your leveling knobs, and then buttons for a pad and phantom power. It also has a switchable VU meter for monitoring different things. The metering is LED based and quite helpful. I never needed the manual, so I can't speak to how helpful it is or not. SOUND QUALITY The sound quality of the Chandler Limited Germanium is the clean and warm signal gotten with this. It always reproduces my microphones faithfully and will do so with an extremely warm sound, although I wouldn't say that this colors the sound. It has a full tone and definitley has a vintage sound to it. I have used this preamp on all types of instruments, including guitar, vocals and drums, and also use the direct input for recording bass guitar. This preamp is top notch and will sound good when recording just about anything. OVERALL OPINION I've been using the Chandler Limited Germanium preamp for two years and it has become one of my go to preamps when I have access to it. As far as high end quality mic preamps go, this is just as good as just about any preamp out there. The price tag definitley reflects this, as it is not cheap, but is what you will have to pay if you want a high quality piece of gear like this. Compared to some other preamps, this is actually pretty reasonable and if you are looking for a single channel high end preamp, I would definitely advise to check this out!
