Ruby is a faithful
representation of the D.W. Fearn’s highly sought-after vacuum tube
equalizer VT-5, and is officially endorsed by Fearn himself. The
original hardware equalizer uses passive LC circuitry with class-A
triode vacuum tube stages for the input and output. The input
transformer is made by Jensen, and the output stage utilizes the same
custom Jensen transformer that is used on the VT-1/VT-2 mic
preamps.
The preamp stage dynamically recreates the
pass-through sonic coloration of the original hardware unit, which
includes the harmonic distortion behavior of the hardware, the
inherent phase shift, and the frequency response deviations. When the
preamp is switched off, the plugin offers a cleaner and more linear
sonic character than the original version.
Gain staging into the plugin behaves similarly to hitting the original unit at different input levels, which is why Ruby comes with an "input trim" control. This allows for one-knob internal gain control by means of hidden linked input and output gain stages.