Homebrew LA2a

A

ad0lescnts

New member
Hello,
I finally finished my home-made LA2a and it sounds awesome. My question is that is it usual for the release to be so slow on LA2a's or is it in my error of construction? The gain reduction meter seems to move back pretty slow and it takes a little bit of time for the meter to go back to zero after audio has stopped being passed through it.

Any comments?
Thank you.
T
 
Can't answer your question but dude, you build your own LA2a?! :0 how fat is that. It must have been a hell of a job, right? I build my own phaser pedal once and that was already a pain in the ass, and that's just a 9v thing!
 
Yeah I got dave jahnsen's book. HIS BOOK SUCKS!! so many mistakes and so many unexplained things... I got all i need to know on the internet with using the book as a starter... If anyone wants his book with SHITLOADS of notes hit me up

T
 
ad0lescnts said:
Hello,
I finally finished my home-made LA2a and it sounds awesome. My question is that is it usual for the release to be so slow on LA2a's or is it in my error of construction? The gain reduction meter seems to move back pretty slow and it takes a little bit of time for the meter to go back to zero after audio has stopped being passed through it.

Any comments?
Thank you.
T
Click to expand...

i think thats how the UAD plug works but when I get home I can check again
 
That sounds like a cool project. I'm kind of getting into DIY myself. I just built a 6-channel PIAI heaphone distribution amp and am going to build some SCA pres.
I'm also curious how much materials cost on your La2a. Any tips on locating parts or assembly instructions would be welcome. Could a novice build one with a soldering iron and the ability to follow instructions?
 
Reggie said:
I just built a 6-channel PIAI heaphone distribution amp and am going to build some SCA pres.
Click to expand...
How does that unit sound like? Any good? I read a lot of mixed reviews of the PAIA stuff.
 
Reggie said:
That sounds like a cool project. I'm kind of getting into DIY myself. I just built a 6-channel PIAI heaphone distribution amp and am going to build some SCA pres.
I'm also curious how much materials cost on your La2a. Any tips on locating parts or assembly instructions would be welcome. Could a novice build one with a soldering iron and the ability to follow instructions?
Click to expand...

I'm very interested in this too. I have some components ands stuff left, and I'm looking for a step up!
 
Thanks Teacher if you could do that it would be much appreciated.



The project was a lot of fun... especially designing the front panel

The electronics are awesome if you have the patience. The book gives you instructions for point to point, which can be really messy and get ugly (like mine). This way is in light of the original LA2. However, I would recommend doing this instead which uses turret boards: http://www.vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/LA2/la2a_layout2.jpg

That would be alot cleaner and easier to work with.

You could do the whole thing with little knowledge as long as you get someone to teach you how to use a multimeter and some basics on how to solder stuff.

My whole project cost about 600-700 bucks including the book. Most of the hard parts to find i got on ebay: the optical unit and original UTC input + output transformers. You can also use Jensen transformers if you want to dish out the cash (this is easy because they still make them), and there are websites that have ideas for creating your own T4b (optical) units. I think I saw one that used a nightlight or something, but I wanted to keep to the original plan.

Heres the website to check out the book: http://home.earthlink.net/~djahnsen/index.htm However I SERIOUSLY recommend only using it for the parts list and general info you'll need to know. The other link I gave above is error-free and gives a much better way to do it.

T
 
Giganova said:
How does that unit sound like? Any good? I read a lot of mixed reviews of the PAIA stuff.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I don't know about their other stuff. I think they sell some kind of cheesy toob preamp kits or something. The headphone amp works great. Plenty of volume and it sounds clear as a bell to me. I've used the Furman 4 or 6 channel headphone amp, whatever it was, and I like mine better.
To someone used to building stuff like this it will be easy. To me it was a pain in the a... butt, because I still suck. It is probably worth the money to just buy one of the other preassembled headphone amps just to save you the trouble, but it feels good knowing I built it.
 
Great! I think I'll order one of the PAIA headohone amps and fire up my soldering iron :D

Did you put it in a rack space using a rack panel or use the supplied box? I think having a rack unit might be much better coz when you pull on the headphone cord the whole thing won't crash to the ground.
 
Whoa, that was fast :D

I just used the box it came with, which looks a bit cheesy with the unfinished wood ends. A rackmount would be cool, but I wasn't sure if I would maybe want to have mine loose so I could drag it around hither and thither. The rubber feet have held it in place so far. For $85 it is hard to go wrong.
 
release times on an LA2a... 50% at 0.06 seconds and 100% at 0.5 seconds
attack 10ms

I don't remember where I got this info, but I got it to attempt to "emulate" the responses on my modern comps just for fun.... I am now late for work. :) all in the name of home recording. seeya
 
Thank you very much!
So I guess that means somethings wrong wtih my release as it seems to take several seconds as the meter slowly crawls back up to 0
 
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