Folie Audio always comes to the table with the rarest and very best in vintage recording gear, and today, we’re checking out one of the shop’s coolest Reverb listings.
Up for sale is a pair of Siemens ELA 75–15 Universal Equalizers. Siemens designed and released the high–end 75–15 in response to Klein & Hummel’s popular UE100 and UE1000 mastering equalizers.
How the 75–15 differentiated from the competition, though, is through its appointments. Supposedly designed by Dick Swettenham of Helios, the 75–15 features PCB traces/pads and gold–plated switches — a luxury appointment even in the realm of high-end studio gear. It’s fully modular, fully discrete and transformer–balanced, with 1.25% film capacitors and 1% metal film resistors.
The EQ is fantastic. [It’s] one of the best–sounding units I have ever heard in my 30+ years in Pro Audio." - John Peluso of Peluso Microphones
What’s more is that only 20 of these units were manufactured in total, one of which is featured at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. About the 75–15, John Peluso of Peluso Microphones said, "The EQ is fantastic. [It’s] one of the best–sounding units I have ever heard in my 30+ years in Pro Audio."
Aside from a few minor cosmicetic blemishes, the specific pair up for sale are in excellent condition, with 220v AC plugs and XLR I/O. They’ve been recapped with new high–quality 105 degree electrolytic capacitors, and all of EQ sections have been calibrated, matched for gain, and tested for phase/THD/noise with Audio Precision test equipment.
Everything is in working order on both units and nothing has been modified. The only difference between the two is that one features a "440" frequency button and the other features a "400" button on the low–mid band EQ section, but they test at the same frequency.
The ELA 75–15s are great for mastering or for any other application where stereo matching and/or the highest grade components are required. Put simply, they just don’t make them like this anymore.