What we use
You’ve done your part. Peerless has three secret ingredients that will make you sound even better: our acoustically accurate studios, our extremely high-quality mastering-grade equipment, and our engineers, who know how to get the magic out of it all.
The Studios
Studio A
The Peerless A-Room was created for unparalleled sonic accuracy so both the mastering engineer and our clients can hear the material flawlessly. It was designed by one of the world's foremost acousticians, Bob Alach, who’s designed rooms for Sting, Keith Richards, The Talking Heads, Harvard, U-Mass Lowell, as well as many professional mastering studios. Studio A is exceptionally sonically accurate with a frequency response of below 10Hz to above 35000Hz.
Prior to construction, the room was acoustically computer-simulated in order to ensure that every feature of the room, including furniture, accessories and the minutest of details, would be ideally suited for acoustic purposes. This process involved making a computer model of the room and tweaking the design until the acoustician was satisfied. The model included all construction materials, furniture, and even the listener. The room’s design concept included concealing much of the acoustical equipment behind sonically transparent cloth walls, so this remarkable room is almost twice the size it appears. Peerless Mastering's A-Room is the only Dolby ATMOS mastering room in the area designed from the ground up for stereo and surround-sound listening. It features 11 full-range mastering speakers, two subwoofers, and full Dolby ATMOS processing.
Studio B
For the Peerless B-Room, acclaimed acoustician Michael Blackmer conceived one of his extraordinarily inventive designs and worked closely with the contractors to implement it. It has an extremely accurate frequency response of 27Hz to above 30,000Hz.
The monitoring system features SA Speakers and SA amplifiers. Our monitoring electronics were custom-designed, as was our console furniture, to complement the room and its acoustical treatment perfectly. The result is a truly outstanding stereo-listening room in which a remarkable amount of detail can be heard.
In this room, both our clients and engineers can fully rely on what they hear, which is, of course, the ultimate goal for a mastering environment.
Gear (aka time to geek out!)
Our studios are stocked with every piece of gear essential to do the most comprehensive mastering anywhere. We have unrivaled mastering equipment from the top gear designers: George Massenburg, Daniel Weiss, Cranesong, Z-Systems, Manley, Pacific Microsonics, Cedar Audio, Dangerous, Whitestone Audio, Ampex, and many others. We are always evaluating new tools as they come on the market to make sure we invest in the best out there. Of course, the most important bit is how we use all this stuff!
Studio Gear Highlights
VPI HR-X Turntable
With Benz Micro Cartridge and Manley Steelhead Preamp
”Everything about the HR-X's playback of this recording was uncanny and just right, from the tiniest detail or ambience cue to the sizes and spacing of the images and orchestra, and how they matched the listener's perspective.
Along with the deeper, blacker background—due, I presume, to better speed stability and a lower noise floor—came a noticeable improvement in the resolution of low-level and inner detail.” - Brian Damkroger, Stereophile
GML 9500 EQ
Dual Mono, Pure Class A Parametric Mastering Equalizer
The 9500 is an amazing mastering equalizer. The Gain, Frequency, and Q controls are fully-detented for absolute precision and repeatability. With 1/2dB steps of Boost and Cut and 24 different frequency choices per band, the 9500 is a powerful and comprehensive workhorse for mastering engineers around the world. This dual-mono, 3U "King of All Equalizers" has the most musical and warm sound of any equalizer on the market.
Isochrone 10M
Atomic Master Clock
Isochrone 10M is a laboratory-grade atomic master clock for audio/video equipment and for other uses for which ultra-high clocking precision is required. In audio, it virtually eliminates jitter by providing your gear with clocking reference which is so stable that some testing instruments cannot even measure it:0.03 PPB (parts per BILLION), that is, deviation of 1 second in 1,000 years! As a result, staging, transparency, imaging, separation, and depth are vastly improved and render the warmth and fullness typically associated with analog sound.
The heart of the ISOCHRONE 10M is a Swiss-made high precision sub-miniature Rubidium oscillator, which is 100,000 times more stable than the typical crystal oscillator. Rubidium is a very soft and highly reactive element forming alloys even with gold, but it is best known for its capacity to produce extremely stable sinusoidal frequencies. In this device, it generates a frequency of 10 MHz, hence the name "10M". Source
Full Gear List
Signal Processing Gear
GML 9500 EQ
GML 2030 Mastering Compressor
Weiss EQ1-LP-DYN
Weiss DS1-MK3
Weiss DNA1
Weiss SARACON
Crane Song STC-8M
Z-Systems z-Q6
Z-Systems z-CL6
Manley Massive Passive Mastering
Dangerous ST Dangerous Master Dangerous Compressor Dangerous BAX EQ
Pacific Microsonics Model Two HDCD Processors
Lavry Gold (AD122-96 MX)
Lavry Quintessence Antelope Isochrone 10M
Pendulum PL-2
Pendulum OCL-2
Whitestone P331
TC Electronics System 6000
ESE 2176 ULN
Avalon 2055
Cedar Retouch
Cedar De-noise
Cedar De-click
Cedar De-thump
Cedar De-crackle
Monitoring System: A Room
SLS Speakers
SA Amps with Custom Crossovers
Monitoring System: B Room
SA Speakers
SA Amps
Analog Tape Decks
ATR-102 with ¼" and ½" two track tape heads, customized and rebuilt by Alactronics in late 2022
MCI-JH110 with ½ track, ½", and ¼" two track tape heads, customized and rebuilt by Alactronics in 2001
Analog Consoles
A-Room: 5.1/Stereo console custom designed and built by Alactronics used in combination with the Dangerous ST
Vinyl Transfers
VPI HRX Turntable
Benz Micro Cartridge
Manley Steelhead preamp
Digital Audio Workstations
Sadie H16, PCM-8, and PCM-2
Pro Tools
Formats accepted
Any digital format including .wav, ADM, aiff, and sd2
DAT tapes
¼" and ½" two-track tape
Dolby A, SR, DBX Type I and II or no noise reduction
Wanna see how all this gear can make your album sound?