CRANBORNE AUDIO Camden 500 Preamp

A relatively new name to the pro-audio world, British company Cranborne Audio is committed to producing excellent gear at affordable prices. The Camden 500 is a transformerless mic preamp offering both ultra-clean, transparent mic gain and two flavours of ‘Mojo’. However, the 500 is also a line-level preamp and DI, so it has added creative functionality by potentially adding saturation to synths, drum machines and mixes. The Mojo Analogue Saturation function will be a strong selling point, as it aims to emulate the colourful sound of vintage consoles with a variety of filters and discrete harmonic generators.

Before I explore the Camden’s Mojo controls, let’s take a look at the basics. The preamp is suitable for all types of microphone (XLR input on the rear of the unit), with +48V phantom power