Grace Design m802

When we set out to develop the Grace Design m802 eight channel remote control microphone preamplifier, we knew we had our work cut out for us.  After all, the finest audio engineers in music recording, film scoring, major artist tours and premier recording schools have relied on the model 801R system for its sonic performance and reliability for years.

So the newly designed m802 system boasts many significant upgrades, which not only set it apart from its beloved predecessor, but from any other high performance mic preamplifier available.

The m802 can be controlled directly from Avid® ProTools|HD® systems, compatible control surfaces and many other MIDI devices.  Working closely with Avid, our engineers have adapted their control spec to directly address the m802 as an integrated part of a ProTools|HD® system.  Additionally, the m802 can be controlled by a wide variety of MIDI mappable devices, making it easily integrated into a wide variety of remote recording situations.

DPA® 4000 series 130V microphones are widely regarded as some of the finest reference-quality microphones available.  But with a 130V power requirement, microphone preamplifier options have been limited.  So we have made the m802 an excellent compliment for DPA® microphones by adding a 130V power option, available on a per channel pair basis.

Most model 801R users would happily testify that was the ultimate transparent, high-fidelity mic amplifier circuitry. And while they wouldn’t be wrong, we weren’t quite done tweaking.  First, the signal path of the m802 has been updated to be fully balanced from start to finish, resulting in a noticeable dynamic range improvement.  Next, output current has been increased so that even longer audio cable runs can be achieved without signal loss.  Finally, we have included a provision for a high definition 24 bit/192 kHz converter card in the future.

We have completely redesigned the Remote Control Unit (RCU) to provide greatly improved ergonomics and system control.  The updated RCU now offers dedicated individual channel select switches and we have added a highly visible blue LED numeric display for channel gain settings.  The RCU will effortlessly control a system of eight m802s from up to 1000’ away.  And both the RCU and the m802 now come with a high contrast, easy on the eyes white backlight LCD.

The m802 system now resides in the same bold, stainless steel chassis as our m series monitoring systems, which is quite rugged and easy to maintain.

Whatever your application, we invite you to discover the remarkable sonic performance, functionality and reliability of our new m802.  We’re confident that it will help you make the finest recordings of your career.

Preamplifier Features:

• Fast, musical transimpedance amplifier architecture fully balanced, transformerless design
• Flexible digital metering with peak hold and reset
• Controllable from Avid® ProTools|HD® systems and compatible control surfaces (and many other MIDI devices)
• Dual high-current outputs (XLR+D-Sub) drive long cable runs and loads down to 50 Ohms
• Fast, efficient Philips I2C serial protocol to control preamplifiers from up to 1000 feet away
• Gain range of -7dB to +63dB in 1.5 dB steps
• New selectable ribbon mic mode
• Channel group mode (perfect for stereo pairs, subgroups)
• RCU able to address up to 8 units (64 channels)
• Front panel lockout mode
• Large neutral backlit LCD display
• 15 User preset memory locations, for saving preamplifier settings (gain, phantom power, phase)
• 130V phantom power available, per channel pair, for DPA microphones
• five year transferable warranty on parts and labor

A/D Converter Features:

• Absolute purist A/D converter performance: 24 bit, 44.1kHz – 192kHz sample rates
• Outputs include 2x8ch AES3 on DB25, 1x8ch AES3-id on 4 BNC connectors (supports double wire mode)
• Optional ADAT optical output module. Supports s/MUX for 88.2-96kHz sample rates
• Multiple clock sources: Internal crystal, external word clock and Avid™ loop sync
• Wordclock in and out, clock output can be word clock in, recovered word clock or internal ref word clock
• S-Lock™ dual stage PLL for extremely low jitter without sample rate conversion
• Ultra pure high performance analog front end
• Very low distortion conversion: 0.0002% THD+N
• Low phase noise, wide lock PLL for external clock. Locks to Fs +/- 8%
• Extremely low jitter s-Lock™ crystal based PLL
• 8 channel AES3-id/IEC60958 (S/PDIF) outputs on BNC
• Single wire and dual wire operation (8 channels on DB25, 4 channels on BNC)
• All ADC parameters are adjustable from the m802RCU or m802 front panel
• All data outputs are transformer coupled
• Five year transferable warranty on parts and labor