Cranborne Audio Camden 500, a chameleon preamp

Cranborne Audio is a company founded by four former Soundcraft employees. Some of their products refer to the 500 series. Some of their products refer to the 500 series. The Camden 500 is the mic preamp.

The Cranborne’s vision is to follow a modern approach to the vintage sound. In this way the company is able to deliver very good sounding devices at a reasonable price.

Camden 500, the front panel

Let’s start from bottom because the most interesting section is located at the top of the panel (dulcis in fundo).

A TRS jack is the first item. It can be allowed to handle both Line and HiZ signals.

The selection is realized through a miniswitch capable to select Hi Z, Line or Mic. The Mic input is the XLR on the backpanel of the rack needed to operate the Camden 500.

On the left comes the phantom power (48V) switch served by an LED to indicate the status.

Next in line is the stepped gain selector (Gain) with twelve positions up to 68,5dB in step of 5,5dB.

The switchable High Pass Filter (HPF), has a 12dB/oct slope for the lower frequencied andgets to 6dB/oct as the frequency of the input signal increases. The -3dB frequency is at 80Hz.

A useful phase switcher can be used for multi-mic tracking.

The last (but not least) section is the one called Mojo made by a handle for intensity and a two mode switch: Thump e Cream.

The input signal is monitored via a green LED with a red one to indicate clipping.

The Mojo section of Camden 500

As we were anticipating this is were magic happens. The circuit is realized by combining a series of filters with a saturation circuit. The combination allows for two operating modes.

The Thump mode

Here the saturation is focused on low frequencies. By working on the Mojo handle the user can move from a transformer like saturation to a low end compression which can become a full saturation going up.

The Cream mode

This mode uses the filters and the saturation circuit connected in parallel. Also here the beginning is soubtle but you can run up tu a full wideband saturation reminiscent of a tube circuit.

So, the sound can get from the Camden 500 and its Mojo are quite a few and all well based on the vintage sounds.

The Camden 500 with no Mojo

The Mojo option can be disabled by going fully counter-clockwise with the handle.

In this configuration the Camden 500 becomes superclean and fast. This more is useful when transients and details need to be tracked with transparency.

The Slew Rate in this configuration is 20V/μsec. Quite a good figure considering the price and fully capable of following even the fastest transients of the audio signal.

The bandwitdth goed from 5Hz to 200KHz with the reported response curve:

We had the chance to access some measurements of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and Phase Shift of our Camden 500 compared with other preamps compatible with the VPR500 standard. We can easily state that the performances are better even if compared with highly priced first quality units.

The Phase Shift goes from 2° at 20Hz to -2° at 20KHz with a substantially flat response from 80Hz to 8KHz. The THD stays around 0,001% up to 4KHz to get to 0,002% at 16KHz. Not bed!

It is easy to understand how the Camden 500 could be clean and precise if necessary.

Our test

With all the available options it is clear that the Camden 500 can be used with all sources and for all musical genres.

Clean without Mojo it gets its own sound when the saturation circuit gets put in operation.

The Thump mode is for low frequency rich sources (basses, upright basses, kicks and floor toms).

Withoug getting too high with the Mojo you get a full bass response wich can become dull if Mojo increases too much. It is better not to go over 50% of the available range.

Harmonics get evident to help instruments (guitars, vocals) to get through the mix with no issues.

Going over 50% the sound can be useful with synthesizers (especially lead tracks).

Remove Mojo from the game if you want to track Jazz and/or Classical Music.

The Hi Z input, as expected, is very good with basses with Mojo in Thump mode and level to taste.

So, wrapping up, Camden 500 is an all rounded preamp useful in almost every context without stressing so much our wallets.