Question about old reverberation amplifiers..

[broken_arrow]

Greetings everyone, I was poking around eBay and came across a Sansui RA-500 reverberation amplifier (complete with real spring reverb unit inside). I'm looking to record an album 100% analog this winter, which means no computers. As such, I'll need a reverb unit to color my tracks a bit.

My question is, does anyone have any advice or suggestions about which reverberation amplifier would be worth my time and money? They are actually quite cheap on eBay, but I would still like to get a nice one. Is the Sansui any good? Pioneer made a few back in the day, would a Pioneer be a better bet? Any thoughts at all are greatly appreciated; I really no zilch about these units. Thanks !

[lonewhitefly]

although you can get some cool sounds from anything, i would recommend avoiding the reverbs designed for home stereo systems and stick to the studio-type units. i owned that exact sansui model and couldn't get much more than a short, subtle clank out of it (perhaps there was something wrong with it).

i recommend the biamp MR-140. I've been using this for a few years and it's outstanding (and usually cheap, although i've noticed the prices going up the more it gets mentioned on forums like this!).

[technoplayer]

I second that thought on the home reverb units. I ve had that same Sansui and a Pioneer unit ( the one with the funky blue faux display) and they were both crap.
I am shamed to admit i now use a Yamaha digital unit that works quite nicely....

[diggy_dude]

I have a Pioneer unit with the wacky green lighted display. It's strictly a nostalgia/hippie toy. I use digital units for creating "real" ambience.

[Beck]

Yep, I concur with what lonewhitefly and others have said. The Sansui is a home stereo unit. I remember when things like that were all the rage in home receivers and amps, but very gimmicky IMO. They don’t measure up to even the cheapest digital reverb. I would even use a <gulp> plugin reverb before I’d mess with that Sansui or similar… and I don’t generally use plugs.

For reasonably priced vintage spring reverbs that are designed for studio use look at the Furman RV-2, Fostex 3180, Orban 111, or Tascam RS-20B. They are a bit dark and muddy IMO, but that’s the nature of spring units when you get a lot going through them. I’m partial to the Tascam model if I had to have a spring unit. It has a switchable 200 Hz highpass filter -- very useful. Really a bit torn between the Tascam and Furman.

But… I haven’t used springs for recording since the 80’s and I don’t wanna! I understand the draw to go all analog, but even the die-hard analog aficionado I am I think digital does a great job with reverb. That’s one thing it does really well. IMO a vintage digital unit would be a better option than a lot of the new made in China junk, which aren’t really any better than cheap plugins.

I’m partial to 80’s/90’s made in USA Lexicon and Alesis units. Get a Lexicon LXP-1 and be happy. They sound great and are very simple to operate. Others I have in my arsenal:

Lexicon LXP-15II
Lexicon Reflex
Alesis MidiVerb II
Alesis Quadraverb 2 (V2)
Yamaha SPX90 (don’t use it much anymore)