Tierra Audio Flavour Preamp Model Salt

Microphone preamplifier for dynamic microphones

The Madrid-based manufacturer Tierra Audio presents the Tierra Audio Model Salt, an interesting series of 7 pocket-sized preamps. The devices have their own tone and can be used with standard phantom power in front of a microphone preamplifier as a booster for dynamic moving coils or ribbons like SM7-B, RE20 or Royer R-10. All Tierra Audio products are developed and handmade in a small factory in the Spanish capital. Only selected components are used and the manufacturer stands out from the sea of clone forges with its own eco-guideline.

Clean booster for low level mics

Everybody knows the problem: The beloved SM7B can't be amplified sufficiently with the home audio interface or the Preamp has to be ripped open so much that the noise ruins the recording. The best remedy would of course be an external preamp, but it needs at least 70dB of clean gain and therefore costs much more than the microphone. The remedy for this situation is a small plug-on preamp that is powered by phantom power and provides enough gain for the interface. Unfortunately, the problem is often that the sound quality suffers massively due to the simplicity of the circuitry: The depth is lost, it sounds muddy and undefined, the treble band is restricted. Tierra Audio has responded to this problem and created a third option to unsatisfactory sound and super-expensive outboard gear: The Flavour Salt. Salt does what all the others promise, and does it really well: boost levels, no sound interference, done. Even with high-end preamps, we couldn't detect any sound degradation during testing: The sound remains transparent, speech clearly understandable, the frequencies are not jumbled. Super!