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Fairchild 245 Mono tube preamplifier (1955-1959)

In 1955 the Fairchild 245 mono preamp was released and remained in production until 1959. It was the most advanced, expensive, and sonically accurate preamplifier available during the pinnacle of the golden era of audio.

The circuit of the 245 has several distinguishing features which lend to its tremendous performance. The high-level inputs go through the first half of the dual volume control and the tone controls without any amplifying circuit intervening. The main portion of the preamp is a two-stage amplifier with overall negative feedback to provide a low output impedance and low distortion. One half of the dual volume control is at the input to this amplifier, and the other half is in the feedback loop. As a result, it is impossible to overload the preamplifier with strong signals; and, in fact, the increased negative feedback at low gain settings, as compared to maximum gain settings, slightly reduces distortion.

Typical Tube compliment:

Two ECC83/12ax7 (2x Mullard, 2x Amperex) Tubes Four Amperex Ef86/6267 Tubes Two 6x4 (1x Mullard, 1x Tung-Sol)

image credit: Chris Fuller

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