Thermionic Culture Kite Operating Manual

CULTURE

THERMIONIC

T

HE

K

ITE

OPERATING MANUAL

stereo equaliser with attitude

Thermionic Culture Ltd, 2018 1

WARNING

For your personal safety, please read this operating manual
and warning thoroughly before using the equipment.

This unit must be installed in such a manner that operator
access to the mains plug is maintained. Where the product is
to be rack mounted, this may be achieved by having access to
the disconnection device for the whole rack.

To reduce the risk of electric shock, it is essential that the unit
is disconnected from the mains supply before removing the
cover.

Please also note that the power supply capacitors within this
unit can remain charged even after the mains supply has
been disconnected. It is essential that these capacitors are
discharged after the mains supply has been disconnected and
the covers have been removed.

In the event that this unit has been dropped or has suffered an
impact, an electrical safety test must be carried out before
reconnection to the mains supply.

This equipment is not intended for use in explosion hazard
environments. It must be used and stored in studio conditions,
such that the ambient relative humidity does not exceed 80%,
nor is the temperature to be allowed to drop to a level, which
would cause dew point to be reached.

It is not advisable to operate this equipment if all valves are
not in place and working, as voltages will rise and components
may overheat and fail.

Thermionic Culture Ltd, 2018 2

CONTENTS

Section Page

1 Introduction 3
2 Installation 5
3 Controls 6

3.1 Gain 6

3.2 Bypass Switches 6

3.3 Bass Lift 6

3.4 Bass Cut 6

3.5 HPF 6

3.6 Top Shelf 7

3.7 Air 7

3.8 Attitude 7

3.9 Output Trim 7

4 Servicing & Maintenance 8

4.1 Valves 8

4.2 Operating Voltages/Fuse 9

5 Specification 10

Thermionic Culture Ltd, 2018 3

1 Introduction

The Kite has been developed by Thermionic Culture in response
to requests and feedback from many of our customers. Familiar
features include the “Attitude” control and broad, effective EQ in
a 2-channel format.

The sound shaping controls are all dual channel controls,
allowing the user to make fast, intuitive changes to the stereo
mix without having to check alignment between channels.
However, there are independent output level controls should any
adjustment need to be made to the left/right balance.

The “Attitude” design is taken from the Fat Bustard and allows
the Kite to be run as a very low distortion device or to be
progressively made richer in 2nd harmonic content as the
“Attitude” control is increased. We should point out that this
“Attitude” circuit is unique to Thermionic Culture Ltd.

The type of valve used is critical to the success of the sound in
adding useable and desirable harmonic content to the signal
without incurring any noise or headroom issues. It was selected
for several electronic properties that it has and also through
many careful listening tests that proved it simply “sounded right”
when used in the “Attitude” circuit.

The effect of adding 2nd harmonic content to the stereo mix bus
is well known to bring extra dimension and character to the
sound. There is also a subtle squeezing of the dynamic range
due to the saturation of loud peaks and transients in the stereo
signal. This can be very beneficial when used judiciously to
achieve a louder overall mix, rather like the effect of running a
mixing console’s stereo mix bus just to the point of saturation.
However, the valve circuitry will inherently give a larger, more
forgiving range within which to utilise the saturation than any
solid-state console could provide.