Golden Age Project EQ-73 Premier

Vintage-style Class A circuit and premium components

The EQ-73 Premier’s robust half-rackwidth chassis features a stout faceplate smartly turned out in classic RAF blue-gray livery and fitted with Marconi knobs and per-band in/out switches. The frequency selections are stepped for easy settings recall and precise channel matching when using two units in stereo. Under the bonnet, you’ll find vintage-style circuitry with no ICs in the main signal path and premium components throughout, such as dual UK-made Carnhill inductors in the midrange section and a Burr Brown op-amp in the balanced output stage. The unit can be used with insert-jack-equipped Golden Age preamps or standalone, courtesy of IC-based input and output sections with balanced connections.

The Holy Grail of EQ

For many engineers and producers, the venerable 1073 is the Holy Grail of EQ. It delivered formidable sound-shaping capability while imparting a warm, sweet, and highly musical character to any audio material, even when cranked to extremes. Make your music stand out with the muscular lows, assertive mids, glossy highs, and the powerful, tone-sculpting prowess of an enduring classic. This is the sound that launched a thousand hits, and it’s yours for a song. In keeping with the Golden Age Project’s high-performance, high-value philosophy, the EQ-73 Premier is refreshingly affordable, allowing you to fit two of them side by side in your rack.

Affordable, high-quality vintage-style electronics

A distributor of high-end studio equipment for many years, Golden Age Project founder Bo Medin wanted to be able to offer products with much of the same exclusive sound in a price range that made them available to a larger audience. Inspired by original designs, Golden Age uses modern technology to re-create that lush, opulent sound, making it surprisingly affordable. They use some modern ingenuity to add new functionality to superb classic designs and produce them in a cost-effective way which allows them to be both optimized and affordable. Sweetwater’s advice: From outboard equipment to condenser, dynamic, and ribbon mics; you can outfit your entire studio with vintage-inspired Golden Age gear without exceeding your budget.

About the Golden Age Project

The Golden Age Project was founded in 2005 on the belief that vintage gear sounds best, and the desire to pass on this sonic legacy to a new generation of musicians, engineers, and producers. All-discrete, Class A signal paths with no integrated circuits; the use of transformers, stepped controls, and military-grade build quality: these are the cornerstones of the legendary British equipment deployed in world-class recording and broadcast studios in the 1970s — the Golden Age of Analog. Fat, warm, punchy, and authoritative; this is the sound heard on countless hits for nigh unto half a century. Locating, purchasing, restoring, and maintaining vintage gear is time consuming and costly. Fortunately, this small, family-owned Swedish company makes gear the same way it was made back in the day — at an amazingly accessible price.

Golden Age Project EQ-73 Premier Features:

• Vintage-style Class A circuit with no ICs in the main signal path
• 3-band EQ with dual-inductor-based midrange band
• Stepped frequency selector switches
• Broad frequency coverage from 20Hz–24kHz, 18dB of boost/cut
• Separate bypass switches per band
• 2 UK-made Carnhill inductors in the midrange section
• Tantalum capacitors in the main signal path, polystyrene capacitors in the gain stages
• Burr Brown OPA 2602 op-amp IC used in balanced output stage
• Soldered internal connections
• Can be used standalone or with insert-jack-equipped Golden Age preamp
• TRS jack for Insert mode I/O; nominal operating level approximately -18dBu
• IC-based I/O for Line In mode on balanced TRS and XLR connectors
• Selectable ground lift jumper
• External power supply eliminates interaction with audio circuits