Paul White takes a look at a five-channel mixer amplifier with built-in reverb, suitable for keyboard or PA applications.

This British-built amplifier, although similar in appearance to some of its contemporaries, offers not only 150 watts of power but also independent control of reverb and auxiliary levels for each channel. The high and low impedance inputs mean that most types of microphone will be compatible and, although the Pearl Five is predominantly a PA amplifier, the design is eminently suitable for multikeyboard applications where the variable auxiliary send could be a real asset to many players.

Construction

The cabinet is manufactured from heavy duty plywood, finished in deeply grained vinyl with tough plastic corners, whilst the front and back panels house the preamplifiers and power stage respectively. This form of construction offers no surprises, being absolutely conventional in almost every respect. It's a well-tried design, both rugged and visually attractive, and offers easy access for servicing. The front panel is manufactured from steel and finished in black (powder coating I suspect) with white legending, a perspex panel being fitted to the upper half to give quite a sophisticated appearance.

The preamp circuitry is built on fibre-glass PCBs which mount directly behind the pots, and is based around the industry standard 741 IC which, although no longer a state of the art device, nevertheless offers an economical blend of reliability and reasonable performance. Also mounted on the front panel is a dual-spring long delay line which produces the inbuilt reverb effect.

A conventional bi-polar power amplifier supplies the drive, and this shares the back panel with the power supply and output sockets, the whole panel being utilised as a heatsink. Internal loose wiring is minimal, which makes for an amp that is both reliable and easy-to-produce, the only exception being the coax feeding the reverb spring, which is not restrained and dangles rather too near to the springs for comfort.

Controls

Each input channel has a high and low impedance input, a volume control and two-band EQ (bass and treble). In addition, there are auxiliary and reverb controls, a master footswitch socket being fitted so that these effects may be disabled when not required. To the right of the panel is the master volume control, the presence control and the master reverb control.

The Auxiliary in and out sockets are located below the master volume control rather than on the back panel where many manufacturers choose to put them, and this is a great help when connecting up on a dimly lit stage. On the rear panel are the usual mains input, mains switch and speaker outputs, in addition to which a slave in/out socket is also provided, enabling a slave amp to be connected or the Pearl itself to be used as the slave.

Having a variable auxiliary send for each channel is unusual in an amp of this price, and for keyboard use this is a definite advantage as you're unlikely to require the same amount of the same effect on all instruments. Even a guitar sounds decent through this amp (rarely the case with PA equipment) so the Pearl Five will also be of interest to the cabaret performer who wants to play everything into one system.

Performance

In use, the Pearl Five does its job with little fuss and a minimum of background noise, which is surprising considering the use of 741s in the input stage: hats off to the designers on this point. Even the low impedance mic inputs are quiet enough for live use, though they probably wouldn't satisfy many studio engineers; then again, that isn't what they're designed for. The low Z mic inputs are unbalanced and will not accept balanced inputs on stereo jacks, so if you normally use these you'll need to make up some more leads, or at least some adaptors.

At first sight, the Pearl Five may seem to be a very ordinary PA amp, but it transpires that the design, finish, and sound quality are all to a very high standard and, what is more, the RRP is surprisingly low at only £245. The EQ is more than adequate for PA or keyboard amp uses and the spring reverb also works well in either application. As is the case with most spring reverbs, over-application can result in unpleasant 'twangy' effects, particularly where drum machines are concerned, but a little care on the part of the user should render this problem insignificant.

Conclusions

All in all, the TransAm looks great and should last for a good few years; there's a two-year guarantee to back this up, and being British, spares for the amp are easy to come by. Only the Welsh could come up with such an English design and then put an American name on it, but seeing that they're offering so much performance at such a modest price, I think they can call it whatever they like!

The TransAm range extends to slave amps and speaker systems, while a further PA amp, similar in specification to the Pearl Five, is also produced with built-in analogue delay effects under the model name of Diamond Five and at an RRP of £450.

TransAm amplification is manufactured by TransAm (UK), (Contact Details) and distributed in England by GC Music (Gary Charman) on (Contact Details). Review model supplied by Sound Centre Cardiff. (Contact Details).