🔇 Shure A15AS Switchable Attenuator (15, 20, 25 dB) with Phantom Power Pass-through Review

A great little gadget that everyone who works with audio should have a pair of. We mainly use them in the recording studio to attenuate hot mic preamps that don't have a built in output attenuator. This is particularly effective with "character presets" that you want to boost heavily in the preset for maximum color and saturation, and then mute the signal back in your DAW. The product is very well made; The pad switch and XLR jacks feel very solid and feel like they will last for years. Shure…

Sometimes the volume is not enough and a preamp is required, but sometimes the problem is exactly the opposite and the volume is too loud. For this kind of problem, this little thing is a great solution. It seems to work great with the Zoom H4n, which has some really "hot" pre-maps. The line-in boomed unless the volume was turned down a lot, so this seems to bring the volume down to a reasonable level. The mic also seems a bit cut off, so when I step off the Zoom H4n I might need another of…

I bought two of these for a purpose that requires the highest possible sound reproduction. They weren't up to my standards so I returned mine. HOWEVER, I think their fidelity is as good as any other linear attenuator, so I don't want to give the impression that this product has more flaws than others. I'm now using Little Labs Redcloud in my studio for damping, which is $400 and has 8 channels, and this thing sounds exceptional. I think I'll avoid using anything less than good for my mic…

This robust 3-position damper can provide "simplex" phantom power. Designed for low-impedance microphones (I measured the attenuation impedance (1 kHz): Zin 1000 ohms on the female side and Zo 54. 200 ohms on the male side, depending on the range). Shure did not list the impedances on their website. This assumes a low impedance source (most modern condenser microphones) and a load impedance of a few hundred ohms or more for nominal attenuation. Pin 1 is connected to the body at both ends…

Great little device that anyone working with audio should have several pairs of. We mainly use them in the recording studio to attenuate hot mic preamps that don't have a built in output attenuator. This is particularly effective with "character presets" that you want to boost heavily in the preset for maximum color and saturation, and then mute the signal back in your DAW. The product is very well made; The pad switch and XLR jacks feel very solid and feel like they will last for years. Shure…

Sometimes the volume is not enough and a preamp is needed, but other times the problem is just the opposite and the volume is too high. For this kind of problem, this little thing is a great solution. It seems to work great with the Zoom H4n, which has some really "hot" pre-maps. The line-in boomed unless the volume was turned down a lot, so this seems to bring the volume down to a reasonable level. The mic also seems a bit clipped, so if I keep the Zoom H4n I might need another of these. The…