my Motu 828 received the Black Lion Mod...

[earworm]

OK,
a month ago i sent my moto 828 (mk1) to Chicago, for a Black Lion Mod (only analog stage, no clock),
received it back, real glad it didn't get lost in the mail,
i was very exited to open the box and start testing the thing...
difficult part was that i had been listening to my ONBOARD motherboard soundcard.... so yes i did notice a difference between the motu and my MSI motherboard....héhé

but i didn't listen to my "old" motu sound for a few weeks...so couldn't do a real AB comparison, it does sound good but i can't say like JEZUS WHAT HAPPENED?

what doesssssss impress me is the stereo spread, i don't understand it, OR my ears changed in those two weeks or this analog-update really did something with the sound! Sometimes i get scared when there's a (sudden) sound panned hard left or hard right...... Nine Inch Nails has some sick music on now it totally sounds wicked on this soundcard..

i haven't recorded much yet, only small samples with the built in pres, couldn't notice much difference yet.... maybe they sound more real....i seem to notice the sounds a bit more ""like in real life"

once again, i'm not talking about any Night-and-day changes in sound,
but i do notice things.... the stereo spread is really better (or my ears have been updated or so...) and it seems like its easier to hear the Good and Bad frequencies.....the mixes sound a bit less muddy;......
don't know how this is possible without changing the clock, but hell, I LIKE

can't wait to do some multitracking, real curious about this!!


anyone else had a Motu 828 upgraded by B.L. ?

 

[dgatwood]

once again, i'm not talking about any Night-and-day changes in sound,
but i do notice things.... the stereo spread is really better (or my ears have been updated or so...) and it seems like its easier to hear the Good and Bad frequencies.....the mixes sound a bit less muddy;......
don't know how this is possible without changing the clock, but hell, I LIKE

Honestly, I'd be surprised if any clock change resulted in a noticeable impact on the sound. The best way to improve the sound is to replace certain critical components in the audio path (e.g. ripping out electrolytics) and add small decoupling capacitors on the power/ground pins of ICs in the audio path to stabilize the supply voltage. Maybe replace op amps or FETs if there are any substandard silicon devices in the audio path. And so on.

In other words, IMHO, you got the right mod.

 

[earworm]

ehm


"I'd be surprised if any clock change resulted in a noticeable impact on the sound."


isn't that exactly why people buy expensive clocks? to improve their sound quality?

i'm confused here

 

[pipelineaudio]

ehm


"I'd be surprised if any clock change resulted in a noticeable impact on the sound."


isn't that exactly why people buy expensive clocks? to improve their sound quality?

i'm confused here

According to Dan Lavry, if I read him right, an external clock could only improve things if they were REALLY REALLY messed up in the first place

Marketing aside

I might have that wrong

 

[Track Rat]

One could argue about audio vodoo and external clocks all day but I use mine to get all my digital devices synced to the same word clock source. I like to think I can hear a subtle difference between the GenX6 and internal clock of the HD24 but I haven't done a lot of serious A/B testing.

 

[pipelineaudio]

One could argue about audio vodoo and external clocks all day but I use mine to get all my digital devices synced to the same word clock source. I like to think I can hear a subtle difference between the GenX6 and internal clock of the HD24 but I haven't done a lot of serious A/B testing.

Thats a different issue I would say...I got some reading to do. I know that personally, if I have more than one device going, and DONT have them all locked to one clock, life sucks. Its also a convenience thing. If I set them all to external, I can just flip a switch on the genx6 to go between 44 and 48 and KNOW theyre going to go there

 

[dgatwood]

One could argue about audio vodoo and external clocks all day but I use mine to get all my digital devices synced to the same word clock source. I like to think I can hear a subtle difference between the GenX6 and internal clock of the HD24 but I haven't done a lot of serious A/B testing.

Exactly. That's the right reason to use an external clock---to synchronize a bunch of different devices. That's much more sane than trying to build a custom DA that doesn't round off clock pulses in that frequency range to get all your devices to lock reliably to an existing device with only a single WC output. (The jitter of a badly-designed PLL coupled with rounded clock pulses can really screw things up far worse than even the cheapest internal clock ever would.)