Altec Altec 1592A Mixer Amplifier

In the shop we have a studio used Altec 1592A Mixer Amplifier. LOCAL PICKUP ONLY

This unit is used but in excellent condition as pictured. Does not include other rack gear or rack. 

Here's more on the specs of the Altec 1592A Mixer Amplifier from "Gearslutz":

The 1592A is a 5-channel mic pre and mono mixer, it's not a power amplifier and does not provide enough power to drive a passive loudspeaker directly. You can use it ahead of a power amp, or as a "front-end" ahead of a recording interface, but it is not intended to drive a speaker.

The 1592A will produce 0.126 watts @ 1% harmonic distortion. That's enough to drive a single headphone to very loud levels. Adding a 600 ohm to 8 ohm output transformer might drive a passive speaker to to volume of a modern smartphone or a 1970's transistor radio.

It's +21 dBm output (126 mW) can easily drive an active (internally amplified) speaker, a PA power amp input, or a recording interface line-level input. To do so set it for the 600 ohm output impedance, add a 680 ohm terminating resistor and connect it to any medium impedance or high impedance "line-level" input. At output levels of +18 dBm or lower the harmonic distortion is still relatively high at 0.5% or less above 50 Hz, but much higher at very low frequencies. 680 ohms connected in parallel with the typical 10k or so med-impedance line input will properly terminate the output transformer. For best results, do not operate this mixer without a terminating resistor.

FYI: The 1592A has plug in preamp stages. Some people think they are simply transformers, but they are in fact the mic pre gain stages. The "Altec No. 1578A" and "1588A" plug-ins are for use with microphones, but the "1579a" plug-is are for use with magnetic phono cartridges and will sound terrible if used with a microphone.

The switch below each input gain knob labeled "speech-music" is, in fact, a low-cut filter. The "Speech" setting creates a -6dB @100 Hz/-16 dB @ 30 Hz bass roll-off. The "Bright" switch adds a broad treble boost of +3dB @ 3 to 20 kHz.

When used with a low impedance dynamic or ribbon microphone the 1592A (with the "1588A" input plug-ins) has enough distortion and a high enough noise floor to add some "thickening" and "character" to the sound. It's not a "clean" mic pre, but can add a "1960s" kind of vibe if that's what you're aiming for.

The 1592A has no provision for phantom power, so can't be use with condenser or active ribbon mics that require PP without adding an external phantom power supply ahead of the mic input(s).

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