Mercury G810 Rack System

The Mercury Recording Equipment G810 Rack System

The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System is the first of many products in the new Mercury D Series Line. From the outside, you might think you have seen this product or something similar before, but there is more than meets the eye with the Mercury G810 Rack System. David Marquette and Mercury used a combination of 20 Years experience custom racking vintage modules and new, innovative features to completely reinvent the 500 Rack inside and out with the new, Mercury D Series G810 Rack System.

Powerful Design

The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System solves the biggest complaint for users of other '500 racks' in the marketplace: Lack of Power, especially when using products that are not built to the specifications of the '500' Standard. The products not built to that standard take more then their share of the power to work, which in turn causes problems with all other modules in the rack. This is not an issue with the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System.

The power specification for Mercury D Series G810 Rack System is much higher than the spec of the '500' Standard. Providing more power does not solve the power problems of '500' Racks, so, Mercury successfully designed a better Power Structure not just providing more amps/watts. Mercury designed the Mercury Power Regulation Circuit as a solution to '500' Rack power problems. The Mercury Power Regulation Circuit is not only in the rack, it is on every channel of the rack offering individual regulation per channel. The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System is the first '500' Rack to have this feature and is why we feel this is not only a better rack but a better system overall. The Mercury Power Regulation Circuit allows each channel to be isolated from the channel next to it or any other channel in the rack, which will protect from faults or emissions from problematic modules. No module in the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System shares DC power with another module in the rack.

In addition of the Mercury Power Regulation Circuit, there is also the Mercury Soft Start Circuit featured in the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System as well. The Mercury Soft Start Circuit allows power to 'ramp up' slowly and will gradually and gently apply voltage to your expensive D Series or '500 Series' modules when you power up. This is better for your modules as well it reduces the danger to woofers that could be damaged with 'turn-on' thump when part of a larger system.

It might not be the first thing you think of when buying equipment, but the power for any recording device is the foundation of how it works. In Professional Audio a clean, regulated and abundant power supply affects the headroom of your Preamps, Equalizers and Compressor/Limiters etc... Stable, Abundant, Isolated power simply allows your equipment to work better and avoids cross talk between channels. For example, If you have a rack full of 8 or 10 limiters for drums you are going to hear things distort sooner on peaks if there is not enough power in reserve. We have solved those issues with the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System, allowing you to concentrate on recording music, not calculating the amperage or total power you need in your rack.

Rock Solid Construction

The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System is simply built like a Tank. Featuring thick aluminum rack ears, and a durable steel chassis, for both strength and optimum shielding for internal electronics. Like all Mercury Recording Equipment Co. products, the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System is engineered to be reliable and look good in your studio but built to be road-worthy.

Flexible

On the back panel of the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System - I, there are Gold Pin XLRs (for channels 1-10) and DB25 (DSUB) connectors for channels 1-8 to give you choices of how you install your system. The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System - I is rack mountable, but you can also use as a Table Top Rack as well. The Mercury D Series Line will have several choices of power supplies to be able to power a single rack or several in the future. The first is the Mercury D Series PSU-1. All Mercury D Series Power Supplies feature Studio Quality, Low Noise, Linear Power designed for Audio. The D Series PSU-1 Power supply is also rack mountable or can sit on the tabletop next to the rack or on the floor etc... You can also mount two D Series PSU-1 Power Supplies together as a dual 1U unit to save valuable rack space, and there are places for optional feet on the bottom if needed.

Features

The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System has many features to make your recording experience easier. The G810 Chain Switch (per channel), This switch allows simple, convenient, internal signal flow among modules. Example: If you have a Mic pre in Channel 1 of your Mercury D Series G810 Rack System, an EQ in Channel 2 and a Limiter in Channel 3, you could plug your Microphone cable in the input of Channel 1 and an XLR Cable into the Output of Channel 3 directly to you recording device and engage the Chain Switch on Channel 1 and 2 and they will all be "Chained" together. Note: This also works if you are using DB25 connectors to your patch bay as well. The G810 Link Switch, (per channel), This switch provides 'Linking' of modules that support that feature. Ground Lift - The ability to 'lift' the ground connection to insure quiet operation in all environments.

The Future

The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System is just the beginning. It is the first part of the Mercury D Series System that will feature Mercury D Series Modules, like Preamps, EQ and Limiters. More, there are new products and problem solving tools for engineers to use to make the gear they already use better. The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System has 10 slots, 1-8 are designed for Mercury D Series or any '500 Module' to be installed, and you can also install these on slots 9 and 10 as well. But in the very near future we will have several Mercury G8 Modules for slot 9 and 10 that will let you do things with the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System to make recording easier and also have choices at your fingertips.

Mercury's choice was an external PSU so power is shielded away from the modules inside the G810 Rack and to make room more innovative ideas in slots 9 & 10 with our G8 modules and build something more than a 'rack'. The D Series PSU is also built in a steel chassis so it is shielded from your other equipment and does not pick up interference from outside sources.

All these choices do affect how well a rack or any electronic device works for audio, but regardless, the DC power of the chosen PSU is then shared by every module in the rack. Either by a cable from external PSU to the rack or internally with a trace on the PCB or wire connecting power from one connector to the next. An easy analogy we use to describe how this works is: the Power Supply is a tree and a branch of the tree goes to each channel, so if there are 10 channels, the tree has 10 branches. But every channel has one source for its power. With the Mercury D Series G810 Rack System the analogy is much different. The D Series PSU is a forest of 10 trees and each channel of the G810 has its own tree and its own source of power.

A slightly more technical explanation of how a Linear PSU works is: AC (Alternating Current) power (either 120V or 240V in this case) enters the PSU from your wall to with an AC cord to the PSU, it then goes to a Transformer or Transformers that convert(s) that AC voltage to a lower voltage (closer to your intended DC voltage). With an additional circuit, that lower AC voltage then is converted to DC (Direct Current) and regulated to a specific voltage to be stable for your intended device.

With Mercury D Series G810 and D Series Power Supplies all that happens as well, but in a manner like no other rack on the market. It all starts in the PSU-1 or PSU-2 where the AC enters and is converted to Lower Voltages of AC with an additional circuit, that voltage then enters the G810 and is converted to Stable, DC Power at each EDAC connector for each channel/module. This gives each channel its own source of Regulated DC power, and in effect its own Isolated Power supply.

Mercury D Series G810 Rack System - II

Mercury D Series G810 Rack System II has the same Mercury Power Structure, rack-mountable or tabletop usability, G8 module compatible in slots 9 & 10, Ground Lift, no chain function, sequential linking only (Ch. 1 to Ch. 2, Ch. 3 to Ch. 4 etc.), XLR In/Out for channels 9-10 only and DB25 for channels 1-8. Mercury D Series G810 Rack System II is meant to be used with a patch bay so you can chain things together there, instead of on the back of the rack. The Mercury D Series G810 Rack System II is NOT a lower quality system, we just took into consideration that some people will not need all of the features and lowered the cost to help provide a quality product with only the features needed.