Fethead Inline Amplifier on Sax and Vocals

The TritonAudio Fethead is a tiny and quite affordable inline amplifier that sits between your microphone and preamp. In my case, I use the Shure SM57 connected to a Onyx Blackjack USB audio interface. The blackjack provides up to 60db of gain, which does sound quite clean even at 60db. (NB: I am a newbie at this).

However, when far miking my saxophone, the recorded audio levels are quite low. Enter the fethead - it uses phantom power, and provides about 20db of clean gain for dynamic mics.

Here's a few charts showing the recorded audio. The topmost sample will be the onyx at 60db gain with no fetheads, and the ones that follow below are with the onyx at various gain levels. Even at just 35, it gives a reasonably hot signal.

And here are some audio clips as well. Note that to hear the full effect of the fethead, you'd definitely need to be listening through a good set of speakers or headphones. I'm using AKG 240MKII studio headsets, and I've been told that listening to these clips on a good set of monitor speakers also show how the fethead fattens up the sound.


SaxFetheadGain35 by Gallen SaxNoFetheadNormalized by Gallen Vocal With Fethead by Gallen VocalNoFethead by Gallen