Benchmark’s newest mic-pre, the MPA1, earns the ‘PAR Excellence Award’

Date:

Mon, 11/03/2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SYRACUSE, New York, November 3, 2008 – The MPA1, the newest microphone preamplifier from Benchmark Media Systems, has been honored with the ‘PAR Excellence Award’ from professional audio publication ‘Pro Audio Review’. The award was presented at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention in San Francisco, CA, on October 3, 2008, where the MPA1 was first announced to the public.

“The ‘PAR Excellence Award’ was a great exclamation point to the fantastic reception of the MPA1 at AES,” says Elias Gwinn, Applications Engineer at Benchmark. “We are incredibly honored to receive the award. We knew we had a very special design with the MPA1. We are elated to see the professional audio community recognize it as well.”

The criteria for the ‘PAR Excellence Award’ were “innovation in design, performance/value ratio, enhanced features, and performance improvements.” One of the highlights of the MPA1 is its virtual 38-position gain switch - an innovative discrete gain control where the gain-range automatically increments or decrements at the end of the 13-position switch range to enable continuous rotation throughout the entire gain range. The gain controls are precisely matched, using discrete 2-dB steps, for a total gain range of 0-74 dB.

“The MPA1 represents the latest evolution in a 25-year lineage of mic-pre systems,” says John Siau, VP and Director of Engineering at Benchmark. “Like its predecessors, the MPA1 was built with a focus on purity. It achieves some of the lowest noise and distortion specs of any mic-pre on the market.”

Other features that were taken into account for the award were the phantom-protection circuitry for protecting the transistors, the phantom-disabling circuitry for dedicated ribbon-mic use, the built-in HPA2™ headphone amplifier, and the basement-floor-level noise and distortion specs.

For more information about the ‘PAR Excellence Award’ from ‘Pre Audio Review’, visit:

http://www.proaudioreview.com/article/18136

or email Benchmark Media at: press@benchmarkmedia.com

For more information about the Benchmark MPA1 microphone preamplifier visit:

http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/MPA1/

Benchmark Media Systems, Inc. is a privately-held manufacturer of precision audio electronics providing leading-edge performance to broadcasters, recording studios, sound reinforcement contractors, and audiophiles since 1978.

BENCHMARK MEDIA SYSTEMS, INC.
203 E Hampton Place, ST2
Syracuse, NY, USA 13206-1707

Phone: 800-262-4675, 315-437-6300
Fax: 315-437-8119
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com

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