Thermionic Culture The Kite Stereo Tube EQ Unbalanced/Balanced

The Thermionic Culture The Kite is a Stereo Tube EQ for mixing and mastering. The sound shaping controls are all dual channel controls, allowing the user to make fast, intuitive changes to the stereo mix without having to check alignment between channels. However, there are independent output level controls should any adjustment need to be made to the left/right balance. All controls are stereo except the O/P TRIM and are designed for easy recall. The HPF (High Pass Filter) operates at 20 & 40Hz with a 12dB/octave curve and the bass boost and bass cut both have 2 selectable operating frequencies, which can be used together for a Mid Cut effect.

Specifications

The “Attitude” design is taken from the Fat Bustard and allows the Kite to be run as a very low distortion device or to be progressively made richer in 2nd harmonic content as the “Attitude” control is increased. We should point out that this “Attitude” circuit is unique to Thermionic Culture Ltd. The type of valve used is critical to the success of the sound in adding useable and desirable harmonic content to the signal without incurring any noise or headroom issues. It was selected for several electronic properties that it has and also through many careful listening tests that proved it simply “sounded right” when used in the “Attitude” circuit.

The effect of adding 2nd harmonic content to the stereo mix bus is well known to bring extra dimension and character to the sound. There is also a subtle squeezing of the dynamic range due to the saturation of loud peaks and transients in the stereo signal. This can be very beneficial when used judiciously to achieve a louder overall mix, rather like the effect of running a mixing console’s stereo mix bus just to the point of saturation. However, the valve circuitry will inherently give a larger, more forgiving range within which to utilise the saturation than any solid-state console could provide.

The main features of the Thermionic Culture The Kite include:

• Input impedance: 10kΩ
• Output impedance: 220Ω
• Distortion (@ +4dBu): ≤0.015% @ Attitude 1
• MOL @ 1% Distortion: +25dBu
• Noise: < -80dBu
• Signal/Noise: -105dBu
• Frequency response ±1dB:

• Attitude 1: <10Hz to 56kHz
• Attitude 3: <10Hz to 20kHz
• Attitude 6: 15Hz to 9kHz
• Crosstalk (dB):
• Channel 1: 1kHz -72, 10kHz -64
• Channel 2: 1kHz -72, 10kHz -58
• Phase shift:
• Interchannel: 0.25º at 10kHz
• Input to Output: 13 º at 10kHz
• Power Consumption: 39.1W
• Net Weight: 5.1kg
• Dimensions: (W)483mm x (H)89mm x (D)315mm