Triton Audio FetHead in-Line Microphone Preamp

If you have a mic with a high noise floor (sounds like hiss when the gain is turned up), this is your solution. I've had a Rode NTG-2 which is a notoriously weak condenser mic that I've never been happy with. I bought a Tascam DR-60D MkII which still resulted in an unacceptably high noise floor. However, the FetHead completely solved this issue both with the Tascam and recording directly into a C100 Mk2. The NTG-2 now sounds GREAT and this purchase has breathed new life into it. This FetHead requires phantom power but does NOT forward the phantom power, so condenser mics either need to use the phantom version of the FetHead or a battery, if supported. Triton Audio recommends this version with a battery for the NTG-2.The FetHead itself is small and plugs inline with the XLR cable. I really like this form factor as it's very easy to use and doesn't require an additional XLR cable. The quality of the FetHead was bad enough I'm not sure mine is genuine - the logo is off center and the FetHead itself isn't completely straight. It seems to work just fine though. All in all, considering the price and form factor this is a must buy if you need some additional clean gain. If you have hiss, buy this before trying anything else and avoid my mistake of buying increasingly expensive interfaces!

I love this thing. Truly brings my SM7B to life without adding too much noise. For those weaker DACs with lesser preamps built-in (looking at you Scarlett) this is an excellent upgrade to your setup. It adds very substantial gain and sounds clean. The thing is built well and while I don't think it should be used in a professional environment, I do think it's excellent value for the layperson.

This past year, I've struggled with my microphone's gain since I'm practically yelling at the top of my lungs with my Shure SM57. I couldn't seem to get my voice loud enough, even with system wide post processing and my gain set to max on my audio interface. My hope was to use this mic for chat, some streaming, and music production. Thinking back now, I should've conducted more research with my gear and how low of a sensitivity the SM57 was. At the time, I was still a bit new to microphones, and what setup would pair well with each other.At the start of 2020, I had started off with a Shure SM57 & a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 1, and boy did I learn the hard way about how much power was needed to push that mic to the point where people can actually hear me without the mic sitting inside my mouth essentially. Over time I've learned to cope with this handicap. That is until recently, where I started to do more research into my predicament and what possible ways I can go about to remedy this situation.I stumbled upon two choices, the Cloudlifter, and Fethead. Since i'm in a spot where space is limited on my work area, I resorted to the Fethead (I also liked the look of it as well).And man, let me tell you the relief that I had when I first attached it onto my mic. My voice still sounded clear, with just a small amount of hiss, but that is almost inaudible. The Fethead seamlessly attaches to the mic via Female XLR on one side to Male XLR on the other, meaning I wouldn't have to deal with having to use another XLR cable if I had gone with the Cloudlifter. I can honestly say that this was such a massive improvement, without having to buy a whole new setup.I recently switched over to the Motu M2, so I only did some tests between the M2 and the Komplete Audio. I found the M2 to work very well paired with the Fethead, and does sound just as clear without the Fethead (Though you'll still get some humming at higher gains). The Komplete Audio also sounded great, but definitely needed more gain compared.Overall, the Fethead is an amazing purchase if you need the extra boost in gains without sacrificing too much in terms of audio quality.

No hiss no nothing! very good clean gain makes my voice sound incredible with the shure sm7b 10/10 would recommend to anyone who’s trying to power a dynamic mic!

first of all, any trouble i had with this preamp were my fault for not doing more research beforehand. that said, i feel like i should warn anyone who is in the same spot as me that this product will not work with a condenser microphone unless you buy a secondary phantom power source.the initial reason i bought this was because i had bought an at2020 condenser mic that i had hooked up to a cheap mixer. this was working fine (the mixer had 48v phantom power), but it was extremely quiet. if i cranked the mixer volume and gain all the way up, it would be at a barely reasonable volume, but with a lot of noise coming from the mixer. to solve this i figured i would amplify the microphone before it got to the mixer, and an inline preamp like this seemed like the best choice.it turns out i didn't read the fine print, and when i plugged in the preamp i got no sound whatsoever. it turns out that the preamp steals all of the phantom power from the mixer and leaves the condenser mic powerless. this isn't a problem for other types of microphones, but i didn't realize the difference at the time.the solution was to buy a seperate power source for the mic and let the preamp be powered by the mixer. it's a somewhat convoluted setup, but after figuring it all out, it totally works. i'm sure there are more elegant solutions (and maybe i could avoid the original problem altogether) but i'm happy with my hacked together solution.as for the product itself, i like that the form factor is small, the build quality is solid, and there is no extra noise added to the signal. it's dead simple to use, and it does what it advertises. i still wish the fact that it doesn't work with condenser mics was more prominent. maybe it's considered to be common knowlege, but it helps amateurs like me if you list potential problems like that on the store page.