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[dave-G]

none more black.

Too bad it's not a 462 C11

[jdg]

all black but im just pissed thats not my EQ, so i'm gonna vote for puke color

[Allen Corneau]

Either way, that 462 is one sexy beast!

Which I had one.

[Bonati]

Robin - awesome! Congrats. How long did it take to get it? I love the 462.

I'm with the all black. It looks more like a weapon.

[Ben F]

Meh...I dunno, the black makes it look a bit like a UAD plug-in. Does look the best though.

Love the original knobs and people know it's a Sontec. Anyway Robin stop fiddling with knobs and let us know your first impressions! Best air ever? Loving the midrange?

[Andrew Hamilton]

You know how, at the beginning of Black Country Woman, when the engineer says there's an airplane, but, Jimmy Page says, "...nah, leave it"...?   In that same voice, I vote for leaving the Sontec knobs as-is.   They are already "ne plus ultra."  There's no better looking knob.  Like Mickey Mouse in spats and gloves.  And it was the knobs that were used when the thing was still becoming legendary.  Why hide that?  Any better can only be worse.   That ain't no 250-, 'neither!      





Enjoy,
    Andrew

[blip]

FYI to anyone in the market for a used Sontec, this is likely a SCAM. http://london.craigslist.co.uk/msg/2008995320.html

The ad uses the exact pics, copy, etc. as when we sold that unit on ebay a while back. Beware.

[Bonati]

The dudes are right, I've come to my senses. I re-vote to leave as-is.

[24-96 Mastering]

Thanks for the comments everyone, much appreciated. I'll distill them down to this:

- red/white/blue wins for practicability/ergonomics
- black on black wins for looks/vanity
- original grey/black for status/tradition

At the moment, I'm leaning towards the black version... guess that says something about me Maybe I can somehow get the colour pointer rings to be better visible for decent color coding.

Bonati wrote on Wed, 17 November 2010 04:09

Robin - awesome! Congrats. How long did it take to get it? I love the 462.

I got it second hand, so there was hardly any wait.

Ben F wrote on Wed, 17 November 2010 04:16

Anyway Robin stop fiddling with knobs and let us know your first impressions! Best air ever? Loving the midrange?

"ganged stereo controls on an EQ are amazing. you feel like a god" (McCaig, 2010). It's true, I'm loving the ganged controls to death. And the Shallco frequency switches feel great. I'm not sure why, but the fact that they go 'round and round', i.e. that there's no stop point on either end, somehow really does something for me.


Sound wise, I'm immensly impressed by how clean and precise the unit feels while at the same time being smooth, for lack of a better word. Musical may be a fitting term, whatever it means to you


Reg. highs/air: To me, the unit comes with two distinct flavours:

The high shelve feels very precise, very neutral. Definitely less soft than that of the 250c. This one I'm only beginning to appreciate and find uses for, but I feel it has the potential to be much used once I get to grips with it.

Then there's the highest parametric band, which can be set to 25, 23, 21, 19 & so on kHz. This one I've found fantastic for transparent air so far. Boosting it at a very high frequency setting and playing with the Q control gives fantastic control over clarity. Does the 432 have the same frequency choices?


As for the rest of the bands: What can I say... so far, whatever band I dialled in sounded right on every job. Effortlessly. I haven't really felt the need to fiddle with any of the other EQs since the Sontec 462 arrived (except for the some Avalon2077 box tone or the Sontec250 tone & high shelve).

One thing I noticed is that I'm finding myself using the lowest band a lot to tweak the low end where previously I often preferred to cut with digital EQ.

Anyway, I've only had the unit for a few weeks now, but I can already say with certainty that it's the best thing since sliced bread. If you give me a few more weeks, I'll come up with some juicy adjectives too

[hnewman]

That's hot.  Jealous.  
Why not just get the matching coloured pointers for the frequency knobs?  Very functional yet very Night Rider.

[24-96 Mastering]

hnewman wrote on Thu, 18 November 2010 02:56

That's hot.  Jealous.   Why not just get the matching coloured pointers for the frequency knobs?  Very functional yet very Night Rider.

They don't make them, unfortunately. For the large 36mm Elma knobs, there's only red, grey and black.

I guess I could check the yellow pages for an airbrush / model painting service and have those pointers custom coloured.

[jackthebear]

24-96 Mastering wrote on Thu, 18 November 2010 11:26

Anyway, I've only had the unit for a few weeks now, but I can already say with certainty that it's the best thing since sliced bread. If you give me a few more weeks, I'll come up with some juicy adjectives too

It's a long honeymoon Robin.......no signs of ours fading at this stage.......

[Allen Corneau]

jackthebear wrote on Thu, 18 November 2010 15:08

24-96 Mastering wrote on Thu, 18 November 2010 11:26 Anyway, I've only had the unit for a few weeks now, but I can already say with certainty that it's the best thing since sliced bread. If you give me a few more weeks, I'll come up with some juicy adjectives too It's a long honeymoon Robin.......no signs of ours fading at this stage.......

Oh, get a room you two!

[dietrich]

As much as I love the sound of my 250c, even with gain mod-matching frequencies side to side is not safe for mastering. I find myself barely pushing gains even when in instances where say a 2db boost is needed. Matching volumes by ear is ok. matching frequencies is near impossible without tedious metering.

Time to find alternative until find good 400 series

[Silvertone]

dietrich wrote on Wed, 08 December 2010 06:17

As much as I love the sound of my 250c, even with gain mod-matching frequencies side to side is not safe for mastering. I find myself barely pushing gains even when in instances where say a 2db boost is needed. Matching volumes by ear is ok. matching frequencies is near impossible without tedious metering. Time to find alternative until find good 400 series

Buzz Audio REQ 2.2 is worth a try... I reviewed it and ended up buying the unit especially after taking the unit to Masterdisk and comparing it to their Sontecs.  Made the choice rather easy after that.