I picked up this preamp in the YS from stirinthesauce a while back and can't find a word about it or the company online. All I know is that it was made in Milwaukie OR
Reference Audio Designs MS2. Mine is serial number 251. The DC converter label says Aug1994.
Features:
2 channel microphone battery (or AC) powered preamplifier
+48 phantom power on XLR inputs
runs on 4-16 V on 4 pin XLR or M tip barrel plug (or AC adapter)
pad switches on each channel
M/S decoder with adjustable width
balanced outputs on TRS and unbalanced on single TS output sum
Analog Devices SSM2017p opamps
Analog Devices SSM2142 Balanced Line Drivers
Nichicon caps (the blue barrels)
Proprietary DC/DC converter
I'm guessing this thing was targeting the film industry (from the feature set and lightweight battery operated design) and they just never got the company off the ground.
Pics of the front and back in this for sale thread here -
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=115317.msg1541777#msg1541777Care to comment on the design or sound? Feel free. Several shows recorded with it on my LMA bookmarks page. The UM show from 3/09 sounds particularly good IMO. I ran frtowers mk41s for that one but it also pairs well with Neumann KM100s and Peluso CMC6. It's clean sound compliments darker sounding mics but sounded way too punchy in the lowend with AKG 460/ck1.