I've been going through the 5B this last week. Need some $$$ in my pocket and some space on the workbench. I repaired a broken fader, broken output level switch, replaced the meter lamps, repaired the hinged wrist-rest, installed a bunch of missing screws responsible for structural integrity of the frame, and am doing a quick internal and external cleaning, applying DeoxIT to all the open switch contacts and replacing loose knobs.
I wish my prototype Tascam mixer (the "M-__") was constructed like this mixer. It's really impressive. There was an attention to detail and level of physical engineering design that dropped away a bit with the M-500 mixers and then again with the M-300 series. I'm not knocking Teac/Tascam or those product lines. I understand why they did it. They were focusing on a price point, and they were adding many, many useful features with those later product lines and there had to be compromises...and I've consistently stated they were very smart in their choices they made to achieve those compromises. But they really had something going on with their mixers with the Model 5, Model 15, M-35 and M-16 products. And then it shifted. I wish the physical design carried forward as the electronic feature set advanced. If there was an 8-buss 16 channel M-300 mixer built like the Model 5/Model 15/M-35/M-16...yowza that would have been cool. My M-__ looks chintzy under the skin compared to the 5.
Some pics...
Working on the meter lamps:
Annnnnd all done...who doesn't like the incadescant glow of a set of analog VU meters. And the larger meters are a higher quality unit than the M-500 or M-300 mixers. I don't know if the HF ballistics are any better, but they are physically higher quality...and the bezel frames in the meter panel aren't plastic...cast aluminum:
And look...the faux wood side panels...they have the laminate on the inside as well as the outside surface...you never see the inside surface as it is mated to the aluminum plate side panel:
And here is that aluminum plate side panel...nicely formed and machined:
And the backplane is all point-to-point wired to the motherboard...no worries about solder joint failures with PCB-mounted RCA jack clusters:
And I really think the hinged wrist-rest is cool...remove two screws, the panel flips down giving clear access to remove one screw each for each module...remove a screw and unplug and lift out the module...and the card edge connectors are all the same high-quality Amphenol stuff companies like Ampex used for decades:
And the modules themselves...! I know I covered this in my video tour earlier in this thread, but look at the attention to detail with the wiring and the component layout on the board...somebody cared about how this *looked* in addition to using good quality parts and (at the time) leading-edge active components:
And yes the boards are phenolic instead of glass fiber, but it's some of the better quality resin boards I've worked with *and they are all screw-mounted to full-length high-quality yellow zinc plated steel panels!* This affords unmatched structural integrity AND module-to-module RF shielding!
And the card edge connector on the module is a separate board from the component board...no stress on the component board when removing or installing modules...and it's all quality point-to-point wired and mounted with screws and nuts:
And this is a minor detail, but look even at the labels on the modules...each module is labeled with a suffix number as to the module's slot placement from the factory...this is an inconsequential detail, but a detail to which somebody paid attention at the factory...it just tells me the depth of pride Teac had in this product. No...they don't make stuff like this anymore and that shift accurred within just a few years of the era of these Teac mixers...ended with the M-35 and M-16: