SSL Super 9000

Solid State Logic once again raid their archive of preamp and EQ designs to put together a high‑powered input channel.

Sometimes I wonder whether SSL’s engineers ever sleep. The pace of development in Begbroke has been intense for several years now, but 2025 has been extraordinarily productive. First, they ushered in the new year with the 18 USB audio interface and the invaluable Alpha 8 line‑level ADAT expander. But these were only an amuse bouche for the main course, the mighty Oracle digitally controlled analogue mixing console; and the flow of new products shows no sign of stopping there. Last month saw the company unleash the Revival 4000 hardware channel strip, and they’ve now added a companion piece in the shape of the Super 9000.

In some ways, these products represent the yin and the yang of Solid State Logic. The Revival 4000 repackages the sound of the classic E‑Series console channel for the 21st Century, preserving as many vintage characteristics as possible. The new unit, by contrast, is billed as SuperAnalogue, a trademarked term indicating that it draws on the more recent design heritage of the J‑Series and Duality consoles. In general, this prizes sonic hygiene, minimising noise, distortion and phase‑shift, though as we’ll see, the Super 9000 does possess a darker side too.

Both units can also be seen as modern descendants of products from SSL’s XLogic range, which debuted in the early part of this century. The Revival 4000 had much in common with the XLogic E‑Signature Channel, while the Super 9000 is, in some ways, the modern‑day counterpart of the XLogic SuperAnalogue Channel (reviewed in SOS February 2004). And, since SSL have kept faith with their original design philosophy over the years, the same core processing elements are present in all of them. Although their circuit designs may belong to different eras, the Revival 4000 and the Super 9000 are more similar feature‑wise to each other than to channel strips from other manufacturers.

To The Nines

The Super 9000 maintains the same high standard of construction as other recent SSL launches. Its smart, dark‑blue faceplate with orange and white legending looks simultaneously cheerful and businesslike, and there’s the usual SSL use of coloured caps to differentiate controls by function. Given how many controls there are, I think SSL have done well to fit everything in a single 1U faceplate without resorting to dual‑concentric controls or knobs with a pull action, and the layout is clear and logical. Whereas the knobs on the Revival 4000 sit almost flush against the front panel, though, those of the Super 9000 stand several millimetres off the panel, with the washer and the base of the knob shaft visible. All of the audio I/O is on the rear panel, along with a standard IEC mains inlet.

The aforementioned XLogic range was launched at a time when studios were transitioning from hardware recorders to DAWs, and audio interfaces didn’t always offer completely transparent A‑D conversion. The E‑Signature Channel and SuperAnalogue Channel therefore had the option to add an integrated converter card, enabling them to be connected digitally to the recording system. SSL haven’t made this possible with either of the new channel strips, and I doubt anyone will much miss it now that even affordable audio interfaces offer abundant, high‑quality analogue inputs.

In time‑honoured fashion, the signal path begins with a preamp stage — and it’s here that the Super 9000 perhaps departs furthest from the XLogic SuperAnalogue Channel. That unit provided just a single, stepped gain control to harness its super‑clean SuperAnalogue preamp circuit, whereas the Super 9000 mimics the Duality console in offering not one but two SSL preamp designs. The default path once again uses the SuperAnalogue preamp, this time with continuous rather than stepped gain, but the Super 9000’s dark side is accessed through a button labelled VHD. This switches to SSL’s Variable Harmonic Drive circuit, which is designed to impart the saturation artefacts we associate with valves and transformers.

Unlike the Revival 4000, the Super 9000 doesn’t actually have an input transformer, but the two units share the same gain‑control arrangements. The continuously variable mic gain control spans a 50dB range from +20 to +70 dB, augmented by a switchable pad. Since there’s also a trim control with a ±20dB range, this means that the Super 9000 can comfortably accommodate any signal it’s likely to encounter, and probably quite a few that it’s not very likely to encounter.

VHD has its own dedicated potentiometer, too, but is not variable in the sense of providing an ‘amount’ or drive control. The amount of saturation depends solely on the signal level and the setting of the main gain pot; you drive it harder by increasing the input gain, and use the trim control to compensate if needs be. What gets varied by the VHD knob is the balance between second‑ and third‑order harmonics in the saturation products. This is what allows VHD to emulate both valve saturation, which generates predominantly even‑order harmonics, and transformer distortion, which is primarily odd‑harmonic in nature. And should you wish to emulate a transformer‑equipped valve preamp, you can of course set the control somewhere in the middle.

Super Duplicates

The Super 9000 has two physical inputs, both located on the rear panel. The first is on female XLR and feeds the mic preamp, while the second is a line‑level input on a combi XLR/jack. This bypasses the mic preamp, but is within the purview of the trim control.

In having both inputs on the rear panel, the Super 9000 follows the Revival 4000, but departs from the old XLogic SuperAnalogue Channel. On that unit, the second input was located on the front panel, and supported a high‑impedance mode for direct injection of guitars, basses, electric crumhorns and the like. The Super 9000 has a button labelled Hi‑Z, but this does not turn the ‘line’ jack into a guitar input. Rather, it switches the input impedance of the mic preamp from 1.3kΩ to 11kΩ. This can make a difference to the sound under some circumstances, particularly with transformer‑balanced mics that happen to have a relatively high output impedance.

As on the Revival 4000, the second input is selected using a button labelled Line, but the Super 9000 also sports a button at the other end of the front panel marked Input Flip. As the name suggests, this swaps the two inputs over so that the ‘mic’ XLR feeds the line input path, while the ‘line’ XLR/jack feeds the mic preamp. Under normal circumstances, SSL envision that the line input would be connected to an output on your audio interface, in order to access the Super 9000’s EQ and dynamics at mixdown. In this context, Input Flip allows you to switch the mic preamp into the mixdown chain for effect, without the need to re‑patch. This is a neat idea. Of course, front‑panel inputs and the ability to DI electric guitars would also be valuable, but you can’t keep everyone happy, and panel space is already at a premium with so many features on offer.

The Super 9000’s input stage has what looks like a four‑segment meter, but this functions only on the VHD path, and indicates saturation intensity rather than signal level as such. The SuperAnalogue preamp and the line input have no dedicated visual indication of signal presence at all, although the five‑segment output level meter at the other end of the front panel can be repurposed as an input level meter.

The Big Squeeze

Following the preamp, the default processing order takes the signal through the dynamics section. Again derived from the circuits used in the 9000‑series and Duality consoles, this is based around a THAT 2181A VCA chip. In time‑honoured SSL style, the compressor section offers continuously variable threshold, release and ratio controls, plus two switchable attack times. The switchable ‘peak detect’ mode is not unlike the hard‑knee option on the Revival 4000, in that it makes the compression more assertive and generally achieves more gain reduction for a given threshold and ratio setting.

The expander/gate section likewise features switchable attack and variable threshold and release time controls, joined in this case by continuous Range and Hold controls. The latter makes the Super’s expander/gate a fair bit more flexible than that of the Revival, giving you extensive control over the ‘shape’ of the release as well as of its timing. For example, if you want to create the classic gated reverb effect on a snare drum, you can do this by selecting a fast release but a longish hold time. Then, once the signal level has dropped below the threshold, the gate will remain fully open for the Hold period before suddenly cutting off. This sounds quite different from just setting a longer release.

Next up, under normal circumstances, is the filter section, though this can be switched either to the start of the signal chain or to the dynamics side‑chain path if needed. The high‑ and low‑pass filters have the same very generous ranges as on the Revival 4000, which is especially useful when you do want to shape the response of the compressor.

The main EQ section comprises two parametric and two shelving bands, and can be routed before or after the dynamics, or switched into the dynamics side‑chain, should you so desire. Like that of the Revival 4000, the EQ operates in two switchable modes based on different iterations of the SSL console equaliser. In this case, the default mode is the 292 G‑Series ‘pink knob’ circuit, with the alternative being the 242 ‘black knob’ EQ found on later E‑Series consoles; this is also one of the options on the Revival. The 292 mode is a proportional‑Q design, meaning that bandwidth narrows with increasing boost or attenuation, while the 242 is a constant‑Q circuit, where bandwidth is invariant with respect to gain. The 292’s outer bands also display a quality SSL call “overshoot”, whereby a shelving boost or cut is counterbalanced by a small dip or peak the other side of the turnover frequency. This can be turned to the engineer’s advantage; for example, if you use a 292 shelf to attenuate low bass, the overshoot will tend to accentuate the upper bass and low mids, helping to retain the sense of weight in the sound.

At either side of the Super 9000’s two parametric midrange EQ bands, you’ll find buttons with slightly cryptic logos. The function of these depends on which mode you have selected. In 292 mode, they extend the frequency range of the low‑midrange and upper‑midrange bands upwards and downwards respectively, by a factor of three. In combination with the filters and the shelving bands, this can, for example, be used to craft quite complex curves at the low end, since it enables the low‑midrange band to operate at centre frequencies down to 66Hz. In ‘black knob’ mode, by contrast, the abovementioned buttons affect the shelving rather than the parametric bands, switching them to bell or semi‑parametric mode — semi, because there’s no control over bandwidth.

Finally, the Super 9000’s output stage features the same ±20dB output level control found on the Revival. The Super also inherits that unit’s balanced insert point, which can be positioned either just after the mic preamp or just before the output stage’s level control. And, as on the Revival, there are separate external key and side‑chain link inputs for the dynamics section.

Colour Choices

My lasting impression of the recent Revival 4000 is that although it is billed as a vintage recreation, there is really nothing that dates it. If it had been brought out by a different manufacturer and presented as the latest, greatest thing, no‑one would be complaining that the Revival 4000 sounds ‘old’, or that it lacks features. SSL located the sweet spot of console channel strip design back in the early ’80s, and although studios have changed a lot since then, that sweet spot hasn’t really moved. What’s more, things that were once unavoidable side‑effects or compromises, such as the slight coloration imparted by an input transformer, are now prized in their own right.

The Input Flip button, adjacent to the main output level control, switches the second input to feed the mic preamp, in case you want to spice up your line‑level signals.

The Super 9000 occupies exactly the same sweet spot, and for everyday tracking and mixing applications, I’d be equally happy to use either. In terms of basic features, there’s almost nothing to choose between the two; for me personally, the 9000’s VHD controls and more versatile gate probably outweigh the 4000’s de‑esser, but that won’t be a universal preference. So how best to characterise the difference? Well, although the Revival 4000 is capable of being surprisingly transparent, it does have ‘a sound’, especially when you start to push the preamp hard or make bold moves with the EQ. If you used Revival 4000s on every input or every track in a mix, you might even go some way towards replicating the character of mixes done on a 4000‑series console back in the day.

If two flavours of SSL EQ can’t add sufficient spice to a colourless, bland source, then it perhaps wasn’t worth recording in the first place.

By contrast, I’d say the Super 9000 is more of a chameleon. At one end of the scale, it can be even more transparent than the Revival 4000. If what you want is noiseless preamplification, dynamics control that leaves no footprint, and discreet tone‑shaping, that’s easy to achieve. But that’s only one of the Super 9000’s personalities. Its VHD preamp path is often significantly more coloured than the Revival’s transformer‑coupled input, and it offers much greater control over the degree and character of the saturation that’s applied. Its compressor can be made to properly dig in, or obliterate peaks, as needed. The addition of the Hold control turns its gate into a creative mixdown effect. And if two flavours of SSL EQ can’t add sufficient spice to a colourless, bland source, then it perhaps wasn’t worth recording in the first place.

Like the Revival 4000, the Super 9000 is powerful and versatile. As with the 4000, that power and versatility is made accessible by a logical and clear front‑panel layout. And, like the Revival 4000, the Super 9000 is surprisingly affordable for a unit that brooks no compromises on functionality, sound quality or construction. Perhaps the question to ask is not “Which should I buy?” but “Which should I buy first?”

Information

£1498.80 including VAT.

Headline Audio +44 (0)1908 477142.

sales@headlineaudio.com

www.headlineaudio.com

www.solidstatelogic.com

$1999

www.solidstatelogic.com

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