RCA BN-6B Germanium Mic Preamp

The following is from a facebook post by Carlos Castro:
"The RCA BN-6B Germanium Transistor based portable remote amplifier, was one of RCA’s initial foray in solid-state technology. These came as an answer to their popular OP-6 single channel portable tube channel and the BN-2A multi Mic input portable mixer (also Tube Based). In regards to the BN-6B Germanium mixer, it had a total of (4) Mic inputs and (1) mono output. Each microphone input has an RCA transformer in it that can be strapped for either 150 or or 30 Ohms. The style of input transformers will vary depending on the vintage of the unit, each input transformer will yield different sonic results. The output is transformer balanced which can also be strapped for 600, 300 or 150 ohms. These mixers have the capability of putting out a total of 87 db. of gain. Because of the Germanium transistors, noise can be an issue at high gain. Unless you use an input pad, condenser microphones will not be happy being fed into this unit, the only exception is a Sony C-37a, which has a low output and it sounds outrageous going thru this pre. The character is unique, the transient is response is slow, think of a Neve Mic pre-response but with a beautiful mid-range that can sound slightly gritty at times, but I find that cool, personally for certain things. For certain voices, it may sound too dark and muffled using the Sony and the RCA, but when the match is good, it stamps a Wow factor into the track. Special care must be paid to the power supply and the general re-capping of these units. Usually the meters on these units go bad over the years, in my unit the mixer was serviced and restored by Mr. Steve Firlotte of Inward Connections. Just another color within the wide pallet of sounds available that makes things sound that much cooler at the end of the day."

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