Are all lx20s a little noisy?

[antofants]

I use to own an LX20 and an XT20 for a while. Got rid of the XT20 first because I had issues with it fom the moment I bought it and now turn people away from a certain music store in Pa. for their poor customer service on the entire deal (sorry for the vent). But I also purchased an lx20 that seemed to be a bit noisy compared to my motu computer hardware. Is that just the nature of Adats to have a little noise to them or did I just happen to get two duds in a row. I got rid of them both over time but have been pondering the purchase of an XT20 again for backup, on location recording that I would dump to computer to edit, etc. Do the elco cables really improve the sound quality drastically? (I would imagine)
Any insight or advice? - David

FWIW- the on location recording I mentioned was of a more critical nature. (orchestras, etc.)

 

[Mustafa Salaam]

It all depends on what your signal path was going into the LX.
While the LX's converters are not as good as the XT's, clean & clear recordings can be achieved with an LX that has been properly maintained & serviced.
When there is a signal degradation or unwanted sound artifacts
while tracking, this would indicate that the heads require cleaning.
Though I'm now using the HD24,I still have both the LX & the XT
(for archiving purposes) and have treated both like they were own children; cleaning, part replacement etc. While the 2 have hi-hours, I keep them exceptionally maintained.

 

[Track Rat]

Do you mean transport noise or audio noise? I have two LX-20s and when they spin up they whine but the recorded audio is dead quiet.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

ADATs in general do have a lot of mechanical noise from the unit itself.... but as T-Rat pointed out, they are dead quiet as far as signal recording.

If you've got noise in your signal, it could be a bad unit, or it could be poor wiring, bad cables, etc...

 

[antofants]

Thanks for the input.
I guess I was probably just the unlucky one and got two duds in row. I had the LX longer than the XT just for frustration's sake. Got the XT when I was first starting to get in to recording and it wasn't long before I moved into daw. Had major transport problems with the XT. The LX I bought kinda in a pinch and from the start it had audio noise. To tell you the truth, I can't say for certain if there was the same type of audio noise coming from the XT. They both had under 100 hrs. on them before I sold them. I tested the LX to see if the noise was from the preamps I was using or some kinda of stupid grounding issue (although it didn't sound like ground problems). I tested a number of different tapes and they all did the same thing. When I pressed play, a small amount of "white noise" would come with the playback. The pre's where quiet before I pressed play and when I did record something on the tape, the white noise doubled . These are the same pres that I use now with my motu setup and I don't have any issues with them (except always wanting better ones ). I liked the idea behind the machines and wouldn't mind reinvesting in either if this just happened to be a fluke thing.
Mustafa- when you say the XT has better converters, do you mean that they sound criper, tighter, more detailed or that they are also less noisy (if that's at all a factor with your machines)