Tascam M320: any good? Preamps specifically...

[Whoopysnorp]

There's a guy in my area who has been trying to sell an M320 (not the 'B' version, to my knowledge) for a while. Just emailed him and he's looking for $300 for it. Is this worth it? Currently I just have an Alesis Studio 24, and I would like to step up what's in my arsenal as far as preamps. My plan has been to either spend a lot of money (graudally) on some fairly nice pres...think Sytek, not Avalon or Universal Audio...or to find some used mixer with fairly decent pres that I can get for a decent price. Is it worth it for the M320? I would be recording to a Tascam ATR-60 and an RME Fireface 800.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I use a couple of M312B and am very pleased with sound as well as construction and routing capabilities of this mixer. The 300 series was geared to the working band for pro PA applications as equally to serve duty in smaller budget professional studios of the day. A definite cut above home user type stuff for sure.

If you're only buying it for the preamps that works out to $15 dollars per pre. The board originally retailed for just over 4000 , mid 1980's dollars back when it was new so, factor in inflation and you'll quickly figure out that you have a damn good bargain on your hands so long as you don't mind not having phantom power, 4 extra VU meters and some slightly different effect send and receive levels compared to the B series.

Cheers!

 

[dementedchord]

well worth it !!!! but plan on doing a bunch of work on it too... cleaning.... replacing EVERY electrolytic cap in the thing.... maybe want to try different opamps while your at it...

 

[The Ghost of FM]

well worth it !!!! but plan on doing a bunch of work on it too... cleaning.... replacing EVERY electrolytic cap in the thing.... maybe want to try different opamps while your at it...

I haven't had to change a single cap in mine so I'm not sure where your advice is coming from?

As for changing op amp chips, there's only one per channel, an NJM5532D, which is used for the EQ only, the rest is completely discrete so I'm not sure if any real effort is needed there either?

Cheers!

 

[dementedchord]

I haven't had to change a single cap in mine so I'm not sure where your advice is coming from?

As for changing op amp chips, there's only one per channel, an NJM5532D, which is used for the EQ only, the rest is completely discrete so I'm not sure if any real effort is needed there either?

Cheers!

from years of being a pro tech... electrolytics have a life of around 10 yrs... especially if NOT used on a regular basis.... should show up as ripple in the power supply and/or phasyness in the EQ... ya might also have channels that sound way different from each other... also that 5532 is an older op amp... ya might experience a better freq response with a quicker device (better slew rate)...

 

[The Ghost of FM]

from years of being a pro tech... electrolytics have a life of around 10 yrs... especially if NOT used on a regular basis.... should show up as ripple in the power supply and/or phasyness in the EQ... ya might also have channels that sound way different from each other... also that 5532 is an older op amp... ya might experience a better freq response with a quicker device (better slew rate)...

Fair enough, though it should be noted that these mods/repairs are not absolute necessities and might involve a serious investment in time and money to get this type of work professionally done for the non- DIY'er out there.

Cheers!

 

[Whoopysnorp]

Ooh...no phantom...I hadn't thought of that. I'll still consider it though; I can always get an outboard phantom power supply.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Ooh...no phantom...I hadn't thought of that. I'll still consider it though; I can always get an outboard phantom power supply.

True enough!

Multi-channel phantom power supplies are cheap and readily available.

Cheers!

 

[Beck]

Opinions vary of course, but I really like the NE5532 as op-amps go. It’s got a great noise figure and plenty o’ slew rate for high fidelity audio. A lot of great boards were built with it.

As for caps, I've had very few issues except with power supplies. None of my TASCAM mixers have needed any caps replaced in the signal chain. Caps are a potential issue with any vintage board though, regardless of manufacturer.

The M-300 series are nice boards overall... a lot of bang for the buck. IMO, $300.00 for an M-320 is a steal.

 

[Herm]

Hey Tim My opamp is faster than yours Na na nana

All bullshit aside I like my 312b But I have a chance to pick up a nice clean yamaha Rm800 for 300 here in bloomington that I just cant make up my mind on. I have heard great things about it but dont know if I need another mixer around here or not.
Anythoughts?

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Some good info here on the RM800, Herm!

http://www.inversionstudio.com/rm800/rm800.html

Seems like pretty flexible 8 buss board!

Cheers!

 

[Herm]

Thank you Jeff .Nice info. Looks like a nice board. The one thats here in town is a 16 I think. Dang it I have played with it and looked at it twice now and cant remember for sure. But thats ok cause I only need that anyway.
I am almost done with my basement and am getting ready to put stuff back together after not being set up for a year and its driving me nuts.
I need to do some recording soon.

 

[Beck]

Hey Tim My opamp is faster than yours Na na nana

But I got the girl anyway.

 

[Herm]

I always thought girls where cute that had a slight overbite
My second wife had a "slight overbite" She could have ate corn on the cob through a picket fence

 

[BeatleFred]

I think its an added plus if the seller is located nearby and you can pick it up from him directly, compared to buying one on Ebay where packing/shipping it is likely to be expensive. Otherwise, there is an M308 on Ebay thats real nice, but as I said, shipping big/heavy mixing consoles like these can get costly, not to mention the concern of any damage happening to them during transport.

I really love all the 70's & 80's analog Teac/Tascam gear. I have an A-3440 with Model 2 mixer/MB-20 meter bridge that I absolutely love, the A-3440 is just a superb machine. Also have a Tascam 48 and M308 board. Also have Tascam 32 two track, and X-300R.

Regards,

Fred.

ps: for anyone who wasnt aware of it and might find it of interest: there is a date code to the serial # label. For example, on my A-3440, on the right side of the label, its an 02. the 0 stands for
198->0. (1980). And 2 for '2nd quarter', thus 02 indicates a manufacturing date of the 2nd quarter of 1980.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

I'll probably find this out myself soon enough, but for those of you who are familiar with the routing capabilities of the 300 series, is it possible to route signals to one of the group outs but not the main stereo outs, and/or vice versa?

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I'll probably find this out myself soon enough, but for those of you who are familiar with the routing capabilities of the 300 series, is it possible to route signals to one of the group outs but not the main stereo outs, and/or vice versa?

Yes, the 300 series offers separate stereo and 1-2-3-4 assignment routing and busses as well as being able to make several different sub mixes which can be routed in multiple ways...it's a very flexible design!

Cheers!

 

[Whoopysnorp]

Yes, the 300 series offers separate stereo and 1-2-3-4 assignment routing and busses as well as being able to make several different sub mixes which can be routed in multiple ways...it's a very flexible design!

Cheers!

That is very cool...so that means I should be able to have six discrete balanced outputs. That's six of the eight inputs of my ATR-60 covered!

The reason I'm concerned is of course because the direct outs on the M320 are unbalanced, and although that'll be fine for the Fireface, my ATR-60 requires a balanced input. I'm not sure what the method of the balancing is...I may be able to feed it an unbalanced input, but I'm not betting on it.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

That is very cool...so that means I should be able to have six discrete balanced outputs. That's six of the eight inputs of my ATR-60 covered!

The reason I'm concerned is of course because the direct outs on the M320 are unbalanced, and although that'll be fine for the Fireface, my ATR-60 requires a balanced input. I'm not sure what the method of the balancing is...I may be able to feed it an unbalanced input, but I'm not betting on it.

Your best bet is to invest in a balanced patch bay to feed the inputs of your recorder. I use a patchbay regime to work with my 16 track, MS-16 and find that to be a very flexible way of getting signals where they need to go.

The alternative is to invest in a TASCAM LA-80/81 balanced to unbalanced converter box, then you could make use of the direct outs on the M320.

The patchbay is the cheaper and purer route.

Cheers!

 

[Whoopysnorp]

Follow up:

Well, I got the M320. It's huge. It was dirty as hell when I first got it, and full of crackles, but a thorough scrubbing took care of the dirt and an entire can of contact cleaner got rid of the worst of the crackles. I just did a very basic, limited shootout between one of the M320's preamps, one of my Alesis Studio 24's preamps, and my Presonus Eureka. The only dynamic mic I have in the apartment is a Sennheiser e609, so I used that, and I recorded my practice guitar rig and my voice. The M320 and the Eureka sounded very similar on guitar. There was no clear winner between them. On voice the M320 and the Eureka sounded quite different...it was kind of an apples and oranges thing but I think I liked the M320 better. Both the M320 and the Eureka beat the Alesis handily. The Alesis didn't sound bad per se, but it was lacking clarity in the top end and had a harshness in the upper mids.