A real sleeper of a channel strip. Really beefy transformer sound coupled with a Pultec EQ. one ear is slightly bent but sits flush in a rack. The Eighteen isn’t just a response to the fanfare of our Seventeen FET compressor — it’s a part of our dedication to create new homages to our favorite vintage products.

Eighteen starts with a vintage-inspired preamplifier, providing a creamy, yet punchy response. We’ve topped that off with a passive inductor-based program equalizer, and outputs controls for pushing the analog stages to pure overdriven-bliss. 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.

Black Lion Audio’s Eighteen: designed, engineered, assembled, and tested in the USA