QUAD-EIGHT est une société américaine mythique qui a été parmi les premières a construire des consoles d'enregistrement aux USA (bien avant API). Dans les années 60, Quad-Eight était le founisseur officiel, avec Electrodyne, des grandes sociétés de productions cinéma comme la 20th Century Fox et Universal puis a commencé à fournir également les maisons de production de disques comme Decca, Warner, Motown et Stax. Quad-Eight a vu passer dans ses rangs, en tant qu'ingénieur et concepteur, rien de moins que Deane Jensen qui créa ensuite la société Jensen Transformers et qui est connu pour son ampli opérationel 990, un des meilleurs ampli op. existant pour l'audio.

Le double préampli Pacifica de A-Designs est basé sur les circuits des préamplis utilisés dans les consoles Quad-Eight Ventura, Coronado et surtout Pacifica. Plus qu'un simple clone, le Pacifica reprend l'essentiel de ce qui a fait le son des consoles Quad-Eight avec quelques touches supplémentaires apportées par A-Designs et qui viennent parfaire le tableau. Le résultat est un son qu'il est difficile de trouver ailleurs, ni du Neve™, ni de l'API™ mais quelquepart entre les deux !

Le Pacifica existe en version mono sous la forme d'un module au format de la série 500 API™.

...back into time... to the early 1970s, when the recording
industry was starting to bloom with the new technology of solid state. (Dig? Hit products were pumped out as fast as hit record--one after another. There was a creative industry within the audio world. It was, without question, a golden age. Some companies that emerged during that period were Neve, API, and Quad Eight. Although it's been decades, the benchmarks they set are still held as industry standards today. Little is known about Quad Eight, though many feel that they were the best in their field. While debating is usually best left to the history books, A-Designs took up the challenge to take a closer look into the past and decide on its own.

With much research, interviews, and listening, A-Designs came up with a product that they feel needs to see the light of day again. With Quad Eight Ventura, Coronado and Pacifica console preamplifiers for reference, A-Designs closely examined the design and composition of the heart and soul in the consoles of these great pieces. After much design, A/Bing, and beta testing, the result is a solid state, single space, rack mounted, microphone pre amplifier from the "glory days." Cloning being what it is (same old same old), A-Designs decided to head outside the box and make the tribute something other than the legacy. They added their own touch to bring it to present day applications of the recording world.

The Pacifica also exist in a mono version as a API™ 500 series module.