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trubshaw 25th October 2019 10:33 AM

Sonicworld The Brick
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This is what the manual says:'The Sonic World “Brick” is a Class-A, mono, transistor mic preamp in the tradition of legendary classic tube and transistor pieces by Telefunken, TAB and Siemens.
Our goal was to create an ultra-compact front end with astonishing performance to allow the amplification of any microphone or instrument with incredible headroom.
"The Brick" is built on a modified vintage Telefunken V672 amplifier card from an age when the design of audio equipment was not determined by affordability.
In those days, Telefunken used only top quality components, such as extremely high dimensioned input and output transformers. Through its discrete, Class-A transistor design, "The Brick" produces an extremely fat, detailed and "expensive" sound.'

The Brick is handmade in Germany by Jean Hund. It's basically a Telefunken v672 that's been updated in all the best ways. A classic sound from the late 1960s developed by German broadcast engineers as a successor to the v72. I bought one and i have to say it sounds great. Fat and warm with a very clear top end. It's small and very solidly built so it's easy to carry around. The twin gain knobs take a bit of experimenting with - they're not the same as input/output gain. They work reciprocally - Gain 1 regulates the amplifier attenuation, Gain 2 regulates negative feedback (volume). Jean recommends setting Gain 1 quite high and bringing Gain 2 up gradually. It has loads of headroom. It has no meters so i use the DAW to set the recording level. But the sound is very detailed and present - Using a Brauner Valvet X i compared it to some of my other mic pres - Fearn,Pacifica,Useful Arts sfp-30. It has a creamy mid-range warmth that the others don't have - i'll be using it a lot. Sounds excellent on vocals. Also tested it in acoustic guitar, violin, piano. Just a lovely warm sound.

I haven't used the DI yet but it works the gain knobs in the same way. And people who use it say the DI is equally great.

It seems a bargain for the quality of components and workmanship. But don't tell anyone or everyone will want one.