Best sounding $550 channel strip?

M

MadMax

New member
I have this number in mind because that's what it'll cost me after Jim Williams modifies my Symetrix 528, and from what little I've read, it puts a good sounding unit ( I agree, I like it already) up in another league. So, the question is, is there anything out there at this price point that sounds much better?

And don't say Presonus Eureka. I listened to it and me no likee.
 
From what I've read, they replace the front end with a high speed Class A preamp circuit, they generally recap the whole thing, bigger power supply, quieter IC's, sounds like they basically rebuild it. But some of the descriptions I've read say stuff like "transparent" "Clean".

And there's nothing wrong with the way it sounds now, I just want better. And I want to know if there's anything out there in that price range that I could just buy off the shelf rather than go thru the whole ship-wait-hope ordeal. I'm sure I can get my money back on the unit itself if I can find a suitable replacement for the right price.
 
Ya know, I don't really have a recomendation for you on the strip..

but I was thinking to myself about that being alot of money to tweak the sound of a good unit. Why not just PLAN pm getting something different. Or even dropping a few extra bones on something nicer.
 
There have been several other threads on the BBS talking about MicPres and the only thing worth mentioning is the Grace Design Model 101 ($565), but it is only a MicPre.
I think the mods will be a good investment and it will be a piece of gear you will want to keep for a very long time.

Does Jim Williams have a website? I would be curious to what other gear he does mods for.
 
You won't find anything in that price range that will do nearly as much or sound nearly as good. Just get the mod.

.
 
Fishmed_Returns said:
There have been several other threads on the BBS talking about MicPres and the only thing worth mentioning is the Grace Design Model 101 ($565), but it is only a MicPre.
I think the mods will be a good investment and it will be a piece of gear you will want to keep for a very long time.

Does Jim Williams have a website? I would be curious to what other gear he does mods for.
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His website is www.Audioupgrades.com but the website is hosed. I'll look for a backdoor link that I saw.

This is it;
http://home.earthlink.net/~jwilliams3/
 
Jim is into the fast and clean sound. The mods will make the unit sound clean, clean, clean, plus probably a bit bigger, and possibly a bit sweeter as well. Bandwidth will be much wider as well.
 
Not having heard the Jim William's modded Symetrix, that's a little hard to say. I'd hazard a guess that the Grace 101 might be the closest. That's just a guess though.

I think when Jim does a preamp mod he basically guts the preamp already in the unit and puts his own in. If you like the Symetrix now, I suspect you'll love it after he's done with it.
 
IMO, the only mid-priced channel strip that's worth the money is the M-Audio Tampa at $328 from Florida Music. All the $500ish channel strip stuff is a waste of money. None of them give a collection of components that are better than getting some of the better individual boxes and chaining them together.

If you need two channels, for about $550 you could get two Rane MS 1b's and an FMR RNC or RNLA.

I think modding a 528 is throwing good money after bad. With $550 + what you could get for the 528 (maybe $300), that's close to getting into something good, like API, Hardy, Great River...
 
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Dot said:
I think modding a 528 is throwing good money after bad. With $550 + what you could get for the 528 (maybe $300), that's close to getting into something good, like API, Hardy, Great River...
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This is another approach worth considering. I've really found that with preamps you get what you pay for. There are perhaps some exceptions to that depending on the price brackets being compared, but still they are very few.
 
Dot said:
IMO, the only mid-priced channel strip that's worth the money is the M-Audio Tampa at $328 from Florida Music. All the $500ish channel strip stuff is a waste of money. None of them give a collection of components that are better than getting some of the better individual boxes and chaining them together.

If you need two channels, for about $550 you could get two Rane MS 1b's and an FMR RNC or RNLA.

I think modding a 528 is throwing good money after bad. With $550 + what you could get for the 528 (maybe $300), that's close to getting into something good, like API, Hardy, Great River...
Click to expand...

But I got a killer deal on an already good sounding channel strip. And I'm not talking about $550 PLUS the 528. It's cost is included in the total. You're talking about $1000+ for the GR, etc. Besides, I've already got a variety of other pre's and some RNC's.
 
The SafeSound P1 is pretty cool in that range. Although I like it more for its multifunction ability than actually having a "wow" preamp in it.
 
The Symetrix looks like a useful unit. For $550 total I doubt you'll get anything as good, once Jim modifies it.
 
Build or have someone build for you the PAIA 9407K with one or a combination of the mods below. Talk about sweet! IMO Clean and sweet are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Jim's mods on some devices can take the life out of it... too clean to the point of sterile, which is especially bad for those of you that don’t have the benefit of analog tape. You may be moving in the wrong direction in the quest for “That Sound.” Depends on what you’re looking for.

http://www.paia.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9407K
http://www.zhp.homestead.com/zhppreamps.html
http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/paia.php

My old fav was a vintage Stewart pre I used since the ‘80s. I finally broke down and built the modded PAIA as a fun project and to see what all the fuss was about. If you don’t fall in love with this thing, either you or I have something wrong with our ears. :p Could be me, I don't know. ;) But for the price you really can't go wrong.

Paired with my fav AKG 414 B-ULS there’s not much it can’t do.

The Symetrix 528 has all the bells and whistles, but IMO if you’re looking for sound, start with the PAIA and build whatever else you need around it.

~Tim
:)
 
Beck said:
Build or have someone build for you the PAIA 9407K with one or a combination of the mods below. Talk about sweet! IMO Clean and sweet are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Jim's mods on some devices can take the life out of it... too clean to the point of sterile, which is especially bad for those of you that don’t have the benefit of analog tape. You may be moving in the wrong direction in the quest for “That Sound.” Depends on what you’re looking for.

http://www.paia.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9407K
http://www.zhp.homestead.com/zhppreamps.html
http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/paia.php

My old fav was a vintage Stewart pre I used since the ‘80s. I finally broke down and built the modded PAIA as a fun project and to see what all the fuss was about. If you don’t fall in love with this thing, either you or I have something wrong with our ears. :p Could be me, I don't know. ;) But for the price you really can't go wrong.

Paired with my fav AKG 414 B-ULS there’s not much it can’t do.

The Symetrix 528 has all the bells and whistles, but IMO if you’re looking for sound, start with the PAIA and build whatever else you need around it.

~Tim
:)
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I have that Pre, with the mods you linked to as well.
While, yes it is a decent pre, it's not as good as anything else mentioned in this thread.
Afterall, it is still a 'toob' design with a wallwart, Op-Amp & cap coupling.
I'll admit though, it is quite a bit better sounding than any 'toob' type pre I've come across.
 
At some level better or worse can’t even be quantified, only different exists. It depends on what sound you’re looking for and if you have the intuition to move in the right direction to achieve it. That itself is an art.

I normally don’t participate in these “Best of something for blah, blah, blah” threads because I don’t believe in them. They are also too easy pickin’s for vendors and music store salesmen (you know who you are).

However, since I’m not selling anything, and have had great success with this unit and I know others have too it’s worth looking into. I will say I generally have better results with DIY than most due to a lifetime of recording, hacking and ham radio involvement, but this one isn’t really too hard. My PAIA unit sounds incredible. I built it from scratch, doing the mods in the process. The choice of tubes and opamps have the greatest impact with this unit.

As far as channel strips in general, frankly I think they are a bit hyped and this quest for some magic sound is just another distraction (and there are thousands) from the real business of actually recording.

Hell… I can do wonders with another of my projects, my modded TASCAM M-208. Imagine that!

Some things just fall into place regardless of the sticker price. I love stumbling across those treasures and the PAIA unit is one of them.

I’m really not all that impressed with many of the trendy channel strips, some mentioned here. I’ve always been able to achieve outstanding results with modest equipment. Maybe I just lead a charmed life musically speaking and YMMV. :)
 
Beck said:
It depends on what sound you’re looking for and if you have the intuition to move in the right direction to achieve it. That itself is an art.

As far as channel strips in general, frankly I think they are a bit hyped and this quest for some magic sound is just another distraction (and there are thousands) from the real business of actually recording.

Hell… I can do wonders with another of my projects, my modded TASCAM M-208. Imagine that!

Some things just fall into place regardless of the sticker price. I love stumbling across those treasures and the PAIA unit is one of them.

I’m really not all that impressed with many of the trendy channel strips, some mentioned here. I’ve always been able to achieve outstanding results with modest equipment. Maybe I just lead a charmed life musically speaking and YMMV. :)
Click to expand...

Some good input Beck. Have you heard the 528? It's been around for a long time and is a broadcast standard. But from what I've read, you may be right about Jim's mod making it too "Sterile". I just might go for it anyway since I have 2 of the 528's. I could do a comparison that way. I was actually thinking about putting in the op amp sockets and recapping it myself.

But the reason I started this thread was to kind of establish a baseline for comparison. Something I could listen to at that price that's well respected.
 
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