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[bblackwood]

Seems like every now and then, something needs to be modified. Sometimes it's for performance, sometimes it's simply for interfacing (and sometimes it seems like some people mod stuff just to do it...).

Anyway, care to share your mods (or mods you had done)? Always cool to see the inside of gear, especially when modified. This can be cool just to see the inside of some boxes but may also be helpful for some as they may see new ways to lick old problems...

Also, post pics of any custom stuff you have as well.

Let's go, show your mods.

[Phil Demetro]

Hi Brad,

I just put obscenely expensive "BLACK GATE" capacitors throughout my Sontec 432C. With some help from a friend of mine, he speck'd out the parts from a local parts supplier:

http://www.partsconnexion.com/home.php

Like I said, not cheap. 18 pieces were two hundred-something USD!
These caps are BIG and inspire confidence. We have a program/preview Sontec as well, but mine isn't so space inside the box wasn't an issue here.

Here's some flowery propaganda to read:

http://www.audionote.co.uk/kits/black_gate_story_m_colloms_f eb_2003.htm

I've been in mod mode for a while and recently replaced/swapped opamps in my Neve from 5534's to OPA604's. Nice change although the console will likely go up for sale soon. But not because of the mod!

I will also be trying out an opamp switcheroo campaign in my focusrite gear. A much bigger job when you see how many chips are inside this thing.

External PSU's are next. John Klett recommended to me the "Acopian".

Good luck everyone. Be careful though with priceless gems like the Sontec (Hi Burgess! Please phone home...) Ask yourself why you need to do this.

My problem is that I can't leave well enough alone...

Phil Demetro
The Lacquer Channel, Toronto
www.lacquerchannel.com

[j.hall]

as B-rad knows, my amek big is slowly becoming less of an amek big internally and merely an amek big by surface appearance alone

i wish i had taken a picture of the master section before modding.

at this point, most all the opamps (tlo72's and 5532's) have been replaced with bur-brown (sp?) stuff.  the crap VCA's were changed to THAT 2181A, using nice multi turn pots to null the distortion.  the entire console had that done

the entire console was re-capped with nice panasonic caps

put a nice silver plated trim pot in the control room volume spot

next up is a fred forssell consulted mod to the input channels, and before or after that i'll build a new PSU for the thing

[Viitalahde]

Well, I've discussed my project of modding Aphex Dominator II here:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/6808/876/?SQ=e0 f95ac086d8eaf6c4710fa9f87fb4db

It's just waiting for the final tweaks and a new PSU. For the PSU, I was thinking of trying the Jung Super Regulator circuit, just for fun. But only if I make it fit, not much room left.

Then I have a Telefunken w689 M/S + X/Y decoder here which will get all new caps&resistors. Not exactly a mod but..

[bblackwood]

Well, the first one I have pics of is pretty minor (as you've probably seen the console)...

My amplifier (Pass Labs X250) does not allow you to trim the input gain as many professional amps do, so when I built the passive console, I suddenly had more gain than I needed. Rather than recalibrating me entire rig (all DACs and ADCs) to make it work, I talked to an engineer at Pass Labs and they sent an easy little tweak to pad the input stage a bit. Here are the pics:

The inside of the X250:


Though I can do some things with an iron, I was scared to death to mess with this amp, so I had my tech do it for me:


And here it is completed:


Again, quite minor (except I love this amp and would hate to have seen something go wrong), but it dropped the gain about 8dB so I can now use my monitor attenuator fully...

[Gold]

I mostly do resoration of gear. I just got an EMT PDM 156 that needs some work. I restored my lathe and re capped the whole thing. I restored the Neumann console I'm using.

The thing I'm most proud of is the vibration isolation system I installed for the lathe. We are next to a highway. Ugg. It took a lot of research to figure out how to solve the problem. And the problem was huge. I needed at least 50dB of attenuation for the rumble. We ended up with a 5" deep sandbox with a floating top sitting on top of a 1" steel plate fastened to springs with 4" static deflection which in turn sit on more 1" plate decoupled from the floor with four blocks of rubber. This whole assembly is braced from below by a column with a 1/4" steel on top and decoupled from the floor with 2" rubber under as much compression as we could crank it down with. I have somewhere between 55 and 60dB of attenuation. Problem solved!

[OTR-jkl]

PL X250 -
Man, that thing just looks cool!! I'd buy one just to sit & look at it...

Quote:

I was scared to death to mess with this amp,

No doubt!!
Reminds me of my live sound days...
We had 4 Crown MA5000VZ amps that were user configurable to adjust for different line voltages. On occasion I would have to set them up to run off a different voltage depending on what the venue was offering. You had to go inside and re-wire a series of jumpers according to a chart in the manual. Get one in the wrong place and.....

[Viitalahde]

Paul,

that was one hell of an solution to the vibration problem! I very well remember you were wondering how to solve it. Well done.

[dcollins]

phild wrote on Thu, 29 July 2004 09:55

Hi Brad, I just put obscenely expensive "BLACK GATE" capacitors throughout my Sontec 432C.

In many cases, you can remove these coupling caps completely if the offset is below, say 10mV.  I thought the Sontecs had DC servos?

Lets call Burgess and ask!

DC

[dcollins]

Oooh mammy, I bet your exotic resistor sounds better than the boring old Rodersteins that Nelson chose for the rest of the circuit!

I always take the lid off, but with DSP, all you can do is say "Hmm, nice RAM"

Come to think of it, there isn't a single part of my analog signal path that is _unmodified_ in one way or another, but that's just me.


DC

[Level]

Ho Hummm.. At 4Am just finishing a session, my mind is weary of explanations or pictures of the many mods and fabrications that takes this place to sonic nirvana (sic) That said, I promise to devuldge some peepholes of some of my most meaningfull examples in audio manipulation, to make life a better experience.

Brad, That Nelson-Pass amp looks great. (or is Nelson not involved...sure he is, Pass grabbed a vibe to get there, lets include Nelson...eh?)


I will wake up and see this post and wonder what part of my mods would be best to show and tell...since many of them are non-duplicatable (chain/circuit) and many of them would be meningless without experiencing them first hand.

Yes, we cannot leave well alone...and for good purpose!


More to come...

[moogus]

Appart from the epic PM2000 mod project Ive just embarked upon, here are some things Im working on at the moment:

AWA BIG-1 FET compressors.  So far weve recapped and re aligned, and added attack and release pots, aswell as switches for: compressor off(has enough gain to be a mic pre with the compressor switched off), single time constants(att+rel pots), dual time constants(pots + fixed values) and one to switch the original 'program control module' time constants back in.  Next is the stereo link switch and some more alignment.  Absolutely killer on drums, and very cool on guitars aswell.



Calrec CB10c.  Wire has broken off the XLR inside and despite our grevious use of force we cannot remove the base from the mic, so were going to use a pipe cutter.  Since were going this far, I thought why not make it into a valve mic using a sub miniature pentode and an suitably tiny output xformer.  This idea has yet to be proven viable, but damn, it would have to be the smallest tube mic in existance if we can pull it off.


MCI 416 channel - trash to treasure.  Bought it for $70 a while ago and eventually go round to racking it up.  We had a new front panel laser printed with all the writing turned 90degrees, and used the 3 spare opamps on the board as 3 extra mic pres, giving a total of 4 pres and 1 eq.  LF inductor was dead, so we are using an xformer with the right inductance in its place.  This has to be tweaked however as its reduced the cut/boost range.
Rather underrated mic pres in these consoles IMO, and a remarkabley useful eq aswell, especially for the peanuts that channels go for on ebay.



Also working on some ideas for the RNC, the first of which worked remarkabley well when I tested it tonight.




M

[j.hall]

if this is the kind of gear you are finding down-undah, then i need to head down there for a month or two of gear hunting.

that AWA comp probably sucks......you should send to me and i'll get to the "dumpster" for you.

[moogus]

j.hall wrote on Fri, 30 July 2004 23:28

if this is the kind of gear you are finding down-undah, then i need to head down there for a month or two of gear hunting. that AWA comp probably sucks......you should send to me and i'll get to the "dumpster" for you.

Theres still heaps of cool stuff on ebay that never sells...worth checking there before you book yr flight

Ive never seen any AWA gear there though.  AWA is like our version of RCA, Fairchild, Urie and Neve rolled into one company.  They made some amazing Mu comps in the 60s and the BIG-1 was their first generation solid state comp.  They also made dual channel 1073 clone module, 20 of which weve just racked up.  They have the fattest low end Ive EVER heard in a mic pre.  Shitty switches though, and a nightmare to service.


M

[bblackwood]

dcollins wrote on Fri, 30 July 2004 03:48

Oooh mammy, I bet your exotic resistor sounds better than the boring old Rodersteins that Nelson chose for the rest of the circuit!

Yah, once I opened it up I thought it silly how much more expensive the resistors I was putting in were.

Oh well, I guess good enough just isn't...