brendandwyer
New member
We swapped out the tubes in our two bellari rp220's last night with EI Elite 12ax7ln tubes. We did a test run using two Rode Nt3's in xy over the drum set. Then changed tubes and ran the recorder again.
We have two Rp220's one of the first "editions" from whenever they came out, and a brand new one bought last week.
Now i'm no expert i just know what i hear. On the first test of each preamp, i found that the older rp220 had more mellow highs, sort of lame middle but a decent low end. Made the kick drum sound full, but with a lot of attack, the toms were a bit flat, but the cymbals seemed nice and mellow.
The new model was much more even across the kit. The kick drum had less of an attack but a rounder sound. more pleasing. The toms had more life and the cymbals seemed the same if not a little more brittle.
We swapped out the tubes in each with the Ei's and tested again.
The older model actually brightened up a little bit and lost some of the attack on the kick. The toms actually seemed more alive.
The newer model lost all of that brittleness in the cymbals, the toms simply were awesome, and the kick drum had become much more pleasant.
All around, the swap was a good experiment and worth the $60 or so. We'll keep the other tubes in case there is a desire for those sounds.
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part 2 - behringer
we also have the behringer T1953 vintager series dual channel preamp. Some remarks:
I hate behringer because they feel it necessary to encase everything in glue, epoxies, and plates of metal so that changing anything is a pain in the ass. I'm sorry, but your shit ain't good enough to "secure the secrets of your circuits" behind a security system of glue and metal.
Second, i'm pretty sure the tubes aren't even in the signal chain. They seem to be active only on the "warmth" knob section of the preamp.
My plan was to swap the tubes with a set of the Ei's, and then to locate the opamps and swap those out. Well, after 1/2 hour of trying to FIND the opamps, and discovered that they are hidden behind a metal bulkhead which can only be accessed if you remove the toroidal transformer, i got mad and stopped. I changed the tubes and put it back together.
The test:
When we ran the drum overheads through the T1953 prior to the swap, the results were to be expected. Harsh hi end, little or no prescence in the low end. The toms were ok. By ok i mean, they were flat and lifeless, but you'd at least hear them.
After the swap (and keeping in mind that the tubes are only for the "Warmth" setting, which seems to defeat the purpose of using tubes anyway) the sounds were only slightly better. The high end lost some (-10%) of their brittleness. The toms had a touch of color and the low end was the same.
I was given advice by chessrock that in the case of the behringer, the opamps will more likely make more of an impact on the sound than the tubes, and i tend to agree. The tubes did nothing. Well, next to nothing. And the annoyance of the build was enough to make me uninterested.
Also, upon attemping to visually inspect the hidden "mystery" board where i assume the opamps are hidden, it seemed as if they are soldered to the pcb, meaning that even if i were to get it out of there, i'd have to solder it which is more work than i want to spend on the thing.
I'm saving the solder for the 1176 clones i'm building
We have two Rp220's one of the first "editions" from whenever they came out, and a brand new one bought last week.
Now i'm no expert i just know what i hear. On the first test of each preamp, i found that the older rp220 had more mellow highs, sort of lame middle but a decent low end. Made the kick drum sound full, but with a lot of attack, the toms were a bit flat, but the cymbals seemed nice and mellow.
The new model was much more even across the kit. The kick drum had less of an attack but a rounder sound. more pleasing. The toms had more life and the cymbals seemed the same if not a little more brittle.
We swapped out the tubes in each with the Ei's and tested again.
The older model actually brightened up a little bit and lost some of the attack on the kick. The toms actually seemed more alive.
The newer model lost all of that brittleness in the cymbals, the toms simply were awesome, and the kick drum had become much more pleasant.
All around, the swap was a good experiment and worth the $60 or so. We'll keep the other tubes in case there is a desire for those sounds.
______________________________________________________________
part 2 - behringer
we also have the behringer T1953 vintager series dual channel preamp. Some remarks:
I hate behringer because they feel it necessary to encase everything in glue, epoxies, and plates of metal so that changing anything is a pain in the ass. I'm sorry, but your shit ain't good enough to "secure the secrets of your circuits" behind a security system of glue and metal.
Second, i'm pretty sure the tubes aren't even in the signal chain. They seem to be active only on the "warmth" knob section of the preamp.
My plan was to swap the tubes with a set of the Ei's, and then to locate the opamps and swap those out. Well, after 1/2 hour of trying to FIND the opamps, and discovered that they are hidden behind a metal bulkhead which can only be accessed if you remove the toroidal transformer, i got mad and stopped. I changed the tubes and put it back together.
The test:
When we ran the drum overheads through the T1953 prior to the swap, the results were to be expected. Harsh hi end, little or no prescence in the low end. The toms were ok. By ok i mean, they were flat and lifeless, but you'd at least hear them.
After the swap (and keeping in mind that the tubes are only for the "Warmth" setting, which seems to defeat the purpose of using tubes anyway) the sounds were only slightly better. The high end lost some (-10%) of their brittleness. The toms had a touch of color and the low end was the same.
I was given advice by chessrock that in the case of the behringer, the opamps will more likely make more of an impact on the sound than the tubes, and i tend to agree. The tubes did nothing. Well, next to nothing. And the annoyance of the build was enough to make me uninterested.
Also, upon attemping to visually inspect the hidden "mystery" board where i assume the opamps are hidden, it seemed as if they are soldered to the pcb, meaning that even if i were to get it out of there, i'd have to solder it which is more work than i want to spend on the thing.
I'm saving the solder for the 1176 clones i'm building