Black Lion Audio Eighteen

Black Lion Audio's Eighteen starts with a vintage-inspired preamplifier — providing a creamy, yet punchy response. They topped that off with a passive induction-based program equalizer and output controls for pushing the analog stages to pure overdriven-bliss that’s still safe for your convertors and DAW.

Eighteen’s preamplifier circuit isn’t just another clone, but an homage built to pay proper tribute to some of the most classic designs ever made. That's why Black Lion created the BLA1831: a customized, discrete op-amp created through an extensive period of component testing — creating great vintage tone, while still matching a noise floor that’s akin to modern equipment.

Eighteen packs an impressive, original passive inductor-based equalizer that you’re sure to love — featuring a custom Cinemag inductor made just for Eighteen! The results are amazing; a quiet, and ultra-flexible equalizer that packs all of the vibe of your favorite program-style EQ’s.

Eighteen's features don't stop there: it also features a custom-wound Cinemag transformer for the output, as well as output gain control for pushing the unit into pure overdriven-bliss. Black Lion Audio designed, engineered, assembles, and tests each unit by hand in the USA.

Young brain. Old heart. It's Eighteen!

Eighteen starts with a vintage-inspired preamplifier, providing a creamy, yet punchy response. Black Lion have topped that off with a passive induction-based program equalizer, and output control for pushing the analog stages to pure overdriven-bliss that’s still safe for your convertors and DAW.

A heart-felt homage to vintage preamplifiers.

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 Black Lion were looking to achieve with Eighteen meant a bit more work under the hood. This is where their new BLA1831 customized, discrete op-amp comes into play. Through an extensive period of component testing, Black Lion were able to create a discrete op-amp that matched the vintage vibe they were aiming for, while still matching a noise floor that is akin to modern equipment.

The preamplifier also features polarity inverse, 48V phantom power, an 80Hz high-pass filter, and a 10kHz low-pass filter.

A timeless, passive inductor eq.

Eighteen packs an impressive, original passive inductor-based equalizer, that you’re sure to love. While creating this circuit, Black Lion's engineers realized that any “off-the-shelf” inductors simply wouldn’t do. That’s why they teamed up with Cinemag to create a custom inductor just for Eighteen!

The results are amazing; a quiet and ultra-flexible equalizer that packs all of the vibe of your favorite program-style EQ’s. Eighteen features 2 bands of EQ, as well as a low-pass shelving filter.

From Chicago, with love.

Eighteen's features just don't stop: it also features a custom-wound Cinemag transformer for the output, as well as output gain control for pushing the unit into pure overdriven-bliss. Black Lion Audio designed, engineered, assembles, and tests each unit by hand in the USA.