The Swift is quite an impressive beast. It’s heavy, built like a tank and has a comprehensive set of controls. The design is based around a’50s EMI valve design with extended bottom and top response, and the Presence switch is from Thermionic founder and chief designer Vic Keary. The Mid Lift section is based on the classic Pultec MEQ.

The first test of an EQ is to listen to the output with everything set to zero and flick the bypass on and off. The Swift is remarkably transparent, and if anything just warms things up, sounding better than the original without any effort. The bypass switch is a proper one so you know you are making a true comparison.