Just scheduled my Black Lion Audio mod

I haven't personally had anything done by BL.

But I've noticed that most of their mods are fairly basic, and tend to involve nothing more than swapping out opamps -- which is about the easiest and most basic modification a person with a screwdriver and a pair of tweasers (sometimes a soldering iron) can do.

That said, I do think that better (or different) opamps can sometimes open up the sound of a given piece of gear considerably, so it can be very worthwhile, depending on the circumstances.
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chessrock said:
I haven't personally had anything done by BL.

But I've noticed that most of their mods are fairly basic, and tend to involve nothing more than swapping out opamps -- which is about the easiest and most basic modification a person with a screwdriver and a pair of tweasers (sometimes a soldering iron) can do.

That said, I do think that better (or different) opamps can sometimes open up the sound of a given piece of gear considerably, so it can be very worthwhile, depending on the circumstances.
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A guy in my band had his 896 HD modded and they changed the analog paths to and from the A/D and D/A converters upgraded, but also upgrade the clock with their proprietary clock I believe. That should make a big difference. He hasn't recorded much with it yet, so I can't really tell you how much of a difference it made, but there are plenty of rave reviews/testimonials on other message boards.
 
Thanks, chess. For 250 bucks it's kind of a no brainer - my other option is to replace the interface, which I love.

As for soldering, there is no person on the planet who would screw up as hard or as often. I have a reverse midas touch with electronics repair.
 
kojdogg said:
A guy in my band had his 896 HD modded and they changed the analog paths to and from the A/D and D/A converters upgraded ...
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In other words, they changed the opamps. :D

but also upgrade the clock with their proprietary clock I believe.
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Another fairly basic component swap.

Again, I'm not knocking this stuff. It can make a difference, no doubt. If you're dealing with surface-mount stuff, then I can definitely see where the cost is more than justified -- especially if we're just talking about something that's 200 bucks or whatever.

But I hope we're not talking about stuff that's socketed. If that's the case, then you should just send it to me, and I can perform the surgery for you in 15 minutes and charge you like 40 bucks and/or a case of beer plus shipping, of course. :D And seriously, I'm not exaggerating.

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chessrock said:
In other words, they changed the opamps. :D
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Yeah I understand that :D
I think they also put in new pres for certain mods.
chessrock said:
Another fairly basic component swap.

Again, I'm not knocking this stuff. It can make a difference, no doubt. If you're dealing with surface-mount stuff, then I can definitely see where the cost is more than justified -- especially if we're just talking about something that's 200 bucks or whatever.

But I hope we're not talking about stuff that's socketed. If that's the case, then you should just send it to me, and I can perform the surgery for you in 15 minutes and charge you like 40 bucks and/or a case of beer plus shipping, of course. :D And seriously, I'm not exaggerating.

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That's awesome! Do you do other tech work too? :D
I've got gearmod fever right now.

Just FYI Supercreep, I've read accounts from people where they get back their interfaces and all of the sudden channels don't work, so try everything out as soon as you get it back.
 
kojdogg said:
Yeah I understand that :D
I think they also put in new pres for certain mods.

That's awesome! Do you do other tech work too? :D
I've got gearmod fever right now.

Just FYI Supercreep, I've read accounts from people where they get back their interfaces and all of the sudden channels don't work, so try everything out as soon as you get it back.
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Do you have any links to the horror stories? I haven't heard anything like that at all.

Jeremy at BL said (as chess pointed out) that this is really basic stuff and the unit should perform exactly as it did when it shipped.

Sure this wasn't shipping damage?
 
Supercreep said:
Do you have any links to the horror stories? I haven't heard anything like that at all.

Jeremy at BL said (as chess pointed out) that this is really basic stuff and the unit should perform exactly as it did when it shipped.

Sure this wasn't shipping damage?
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saw some posts on gearslutz. i'd try searching there. i didn't mean to alarm you-- i'm sure most of the most are completely successful. shipping damage is entirely possible.
 
chessrock said:
What other things are you looking to mod?

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I'll get back to you when I figure it out and recover a little bit financially. I've had three mics and a guitar pedal modded in the last couple of months, in addition to my usual gear buying habits...
 
kojdogg said:
saw some posts on gearslutz. i'd try searching there. i didn't mean to alarm you-- i'm sure most of the most are completely successful. shipping damage is entirely possible.
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Yep, seen several people over there with problems after getting their units back from BLA.
 
/wades through GS posts/

Meh, the vast majority of people at GS seem happy, and I haven't seen too many complaints about the customer service - I don't think it would be an issue if there was a problem.
 
I wish they'd make a mod for the presonus firepod. That's a pretty popular interface. Or maybe I should just mini-upgrade to a mackie or some shit. I guess the new firestudio is supposed to have better pres and converters though too.
 
BRIEFCASEMANX said:
I wish they'd make a mod for the presonus firepod.
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From what I understand, just about all Presonus gear is socketed and they don't do surface mount.

Your 10-year old niece could mod a piece of Presonus gear. The tough part would be making sure not to put anything in backwards ... which isn't much more challenging than making sure you don't put your shirt on backwards or your sox inside out, come to to think of it.

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Before you sent the interface, do some simple tests. So you can A/B and perform analasys to see what (if any) improvements your upgrade netted.

You can check Slew Rate, Noise Floor pretty easily.
 
chessrock said:
From what I understand, just about all Presonus gear is socketed and they don't do surface mount.

Your 10-year old niece could mod a piece of Presonus gear. The tough part would be making sure not to put anything in backwards ... which isn't much more challenging than making sure you don't put your shirt on backwards or your sox inside out, come to to think of it.

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All you have to do is lign up a dot and/or notch. Pretty easy.
Some older MOTU gear uses surface mount ICs. I have tried swapping surface ICs before (not in a MOTU). Let's just say it was hardly pretty. :D
 
chessrock said:
From what I understand, just about all Presonus gear is socketed and they don't do surface mount.
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You could well be right about Presonus stuff in general but not about the firepod I don't think:

There are a lot of SMT components in there. Nothing I really want to mess with (I was hoping there might be some socketed ICs in the preamp sections, but no luck) so I just closed it back up.
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http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19259
 
chessrock said:
If that's the case, then you should just send it to me, and I can perform the surgery for you in 15 minutes and charge you like 40 bucks and/or a case of beer plus shipping, of course. :D And seriously, I'm not exaggerating.

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Will you start on the beer before, after, or DURING the mod?
 
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