Well FALKEN, thanks for the bump. I never saw this thread and it is indeed a fun one,
and it has raised my hackles!!!...in a purely fun way.
So many great comments and points...
First of all, back to the original post and comments about the accessibility of a Tascam console...now maybe Uli wasn't including the M-500 series consoles in his considerations...maybe his criticism was more directed at the 5, 10 series mixers, the 200 and 300 series...I don't know...and I
know there are some frame engineering niceties included on the 500-series consoles that aren't a part of the aforementioned series boards (to my knowledge), but if the op
was including the 500 series consoles (and the M-50 as well) then I
must beg to differ. remove
6 easily accessible #2 philips screws right on the top panel and the whole meter bridge tips open like the hood of a Corvette...nearly instant access to the backside of
every I/O jack as well as the mother PCB and other I/O specific PCB's...remove 6 more #2 philips screws, again on the top panel just below the faders, off comes a trim strip
and with only 4 screws each from the top panel, you can get any 4-channel input module or the master modules out...totally out since all the connectors are easily accessible already. With a spare 4-channel module ready to go I could literally replace (a) blown channel(s) from power down to power up in 5, maybe 10 minutes. Access. Yeah, those dummies at Tascam had
no idea what they were doing.
Oh wait! They DID! They speicifically targeted all the established pro houses and told them their SSL and Neve desks were junk right?!? And that Tascam products were the bestest in the whole wide world at any price, RIGHT?!?!?!? Sheesh. Take it in context, Uli.
Any product, and I don't care what it is, will always experience
some sort of evolutionary change. The pyramid of products gets narrow at the top...higher dollar lower production products that are more specialized. Evolution in that arena is more customer driven IMO...at the base of the pyramid you have low-cost high production items...evolution is
highly driven by lowering production costs which translates to corners being cut.
Based on what I've seen, Tascam has put out products that Tascam themselves targeted kind of in the middle of the pyramid...I'm talking maybe late 70's through early-mid 90's...but it is really a bit of an anomaly, the whole thing, because they were
clearly not out to de-throne the royalty...they were pumping the home and project studio market...they knew their target audience, but compared to some of the products today Tascam of that era was wierd because they put some, IMHO, pro attitude in semi-pro products. It had to have cost them; their sort of fanatacism, and that coupled with a somewhat sleeper ad campaign history, right? So I see that era of Tascam gear to be a
great value. Great bang for the buck. GREAT, and they don't do it like that anymore. I can't think of anybody that really does when you compare features to price point accross a product line. And as far as today's prices? Goodness...I picked up my 58 and 48 decks for $250 for the pair, both very clean and low-use decks...My M-520? Try $80. And for all intents and purposes it is fully-functional...fully. Yes I think it needs to be re-capped, but that is not Tascam specific, and the trick is
its worth recapping...well worth it.
As to the case at hand, plugging the output from a power amp into an input for a mixing board is the act of someone who was either in too big a hurry to check what they were doing or someone who just didn't know better, either way I doubt that person will ever make that mistake again. For the record, it is not up to the manufacturer of a product to make sure that things aren't hooked up incorrectly - that is and will always be the responsibility of the user.
OH NAWNAWNAW!!! Its
TASCAM'S fault that devices got cooked when I put that amp card in my 58 offset by 1 pin...They should have thought ahead on
THAT one...huh! My 58
sucks because of that!!!
Criminy...That's my sarcastic personal anecdotal experience akin to the poor b**tard that plugged that amp out to the line in. I think no less highly of my 58 because of my stupidity, and frankly its in pretty good shape considering it is 25 years old and so far I know of only 2 devices that cooked as a result of my error which back-fed 24V current down the wrong path. I'm sure there will be more as I go, but again
it is worth it
Another quick analogy: I drive a '91 Subaru Legacy...ho-hum in appearance, but it runs like a champ and had more bang for the buck than
anything else at the time in our price-range. It just keeps on going, and I remember the first time I saw it up on a rack at a routine service...I used to be a real car fanatic and I couldn't believe all the rally-bred underpinnings...just the way they laid stuff out and routed things...and when I had to replace the serpentine belt and alternator (which
can be a real pain), I couldn't believe how easy it was to access tensioners and mounting points...I kid you not I was floored...they thought it all out. Now to extend the point, I don't remember what year the Impreza WRX came out...mid 90's? But it was like $15K +/-...the ultimate pocket rocket at the time
and it was pulling 0-60 times of 5.0s and pulling .92g on the skidpad! Did it have the raw appeal of an exotic "top of the pyramid" sports car? No. It was a ho-hum economy sedan with a serious attitude, but the 'tude was fueled from engineering from the inside out, and it could
perform. A perfect example in my book, and it is the same thing I observe with the era specific Tascam gear mentioned above.
anyway, i just wanted to comment that i think people should use whatever they have until they have absoultely acheived the best possible result from the equipment that they can before moving on.
Lonewhitefly, you are the proverbial
man with that statement. That is precisely why I got back into analog. I felt I was ready to graduate in a way. Now I'm sure I look like a crazy gear addict, but I have spent nearly 2 decades of moonlight activity working through and using different gear, and bit by bit the studio takes shape...I've reachead that point with my digital gear where I know I'm not spending any more money on it because it will do what I need and more for years and years to come, even as it becomes obsolete I am very familiar with it and I know what it can do, or rather what I can do with it and I know there is lots of room for growth in it. The analog side is the same thing...I'm reaching a point where I think I have gear that will outperform me for maybe decades. I realize that is not exactly what you were saying, lonewhitefly, but this venture into analog was the result of a disctinct "move up" in my production work that I had felt coming for 1-2 years before I finally stepped forward, and that step didn't occur until I was certain there were things I was capable of doing and sonically producing that I couldn't do with digital. I've finally graduated from the "gotta have the latest and greatest" trap/hype/rot and it is really great to be free of that.
My hackles are retracted now.
