Shure Develops Field Preamp

The Shure FP24 is a portable two-channel mixer/preamplifier designed for professional field production applications. The unit features a dynamic range exceeding 110 dB, a bandwidth of 10 Hz to 50 kHz and low distortion characteristics.
The FP24 has up to 66 dB of gain, transformer-balanced inputs (assignable to the L-C-R outputs), a built-in slate microphone and a 1 kHz tone oscillator and a headphone-monitoring amplifier. Input transformers are designed to provide both quiet operation and freedom from RF interference, while high-current, balanced output drivers should maintain signal integrity even over long cable runs.
The unit’s high-pass filters function at 6 dB per octave with either 80 or 160 Hz corner frequencies and are inserted prior to any active element of the circuitry to maximize headroom.
The system is also equipped with “unclippable” peak limiters with adjustable thresholds and is powered internally from a pair of AA batteries or externally from a DC power supply.
The display includes dual-color LEDs, which indicate clipping and limiter activity for each channel, and seven-segment LED output meters with three selectable levels of brightness.
In addition, the FP24 links with the Shure FP33 mixer using the A33LK cable accessory kit. This combination can accept a stereo microphone, hardwired shotgun and a pair of wireless lavalier mics, with all five microphone-inputs receiving 48 volts of phantom power.
The unit has a suggested retail price of $855.