South Windsor, CT (October 4, 2023)—In the annals of analog audio gear, the name Fairchild Recording Equipment Corp. is legendary, in large part due to the Fairchild 670 dual-channel tube-based audio compressor and its mono counterpart, the Fairchild 660, both created in 1959. An original, working 670 can run well into six-figures these days, out of the financial reach of most pros; however, Toni Fishman, founder and CEO of microphone designer/manufacturer Telefunken Elektroakustik, is aiming to change that—to some extent—with his latest company, Fairchild Recording Equipment LLC, which debuts today with its first product, a comprehensive replica of the 670.
The “new” 670 comes following five years of R&D and testing, and the company states that the recreation is built to the original’s specifications, down to the same tubes and custom-wound transformers. The unit offers dual mono operation; six selectable time constants; threshold, compression, and makeup gain controls; VU metering; hand-wired point-to-point construction; custom-designed transformers; and tube-driven amplification.
Under the original Fairchild Recording Equipment Corp., the mono 660 was arrived first, designed by Rein Narma at the behest of Les Paul, and was soon followed by the 670. Fairchild founder Sherman Fairchild licensed the 660’s design and hired Narma as the chief engineer of his audio enterprise (Fairchild, the wealthy heir to a co-founder of IBM, founded more than 70 companies in his lifetime). The first 660 was sold to legendary jazz recordist Rudy Van Gelder, while the third was sold to Les Paul; the units’ reputations grew quickly and Abbey Road Studios purchased a dozen 660s in the early 1960s. The 670 was eventually inducted into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame in 2007.
The new 670 is being built in limited numbers, and has an MSRP of $35,000. Sweetwater Sound, Inc. and Vintage King Audio have been named initial domestic dealers. European dealers include Klemm in Austria, Germany and Switzerland; Funky Junk in France, Italy and Spain; Cyber Farm in Denmark and Sweden; SX Pro in the UK. Asian dealers include MID in Japan; Gearlounge in South Korea, and Budee in China. Nashville’s Blackbird Studio has reportedly purchased one of the earliest units.
