TEAC A-3340S what mixer to use?

[vihuela]

Thanks for all the detailed suggestions! It will take some time to fully go through them all but I’m leaning towards the 2A/M-20 idea. Keeping the gear relatively period correct seems appropriate and in line with my usual relatively sparse arrangements for acoustic guitar driven material. The learning curve is pretty steep here even for the A-3340 itself but this helps to get me started! Many thanks to you all for sharing your experience.

 

[BeatleFred]

Thanks for considering the mixer I suggested, if you do look online for any, keep in mind, what I mentioned:

Its very useful to have the MB-20 meter bridge. If you look on Ebay, you will see Model 2, and 2A's, but not too many with the MB-20, which
usually adds to its price.

There were two versions of the 2A whereby one had faux wood side panels that look very nice and serve to tilt the MB-20 upward, which makes the 4 VU meters
easier to see. The other version has a bracket that attaches to the MB-20, which isnt tilted upward as much, though its still easy to see. Once you get used to the MB-20,
its a bit harder to adjust to say, a Tascam M-106, which only has two meters and are face-up- I have one, and find that I have to put a thick book underneath it to prop it up to see the meters at a better angle. Thats not to say the M-106 is not worthy, if you see a good deal on one, you might want to go for it, and even though its only 2 meters, its already part of the mixer, whereas with a 2A, you would need the additional MB-20, unless you dont mind working without one.

If you do get one, the hookup between the 3340, 2A and MB-20 is shown in the MB-20 op manual with a diagram, you just need some extra rca-rca cables to make the connections. The manual should be found online, but if you cant seem to find it, I can provide a copy or post the hookup diagram.

Some folks mentioned the concern of no xlr connectors or phantom power (which is also the same on M-106 by the way), so just curious what mic are you planning to use to record, is it a condensor mic?

You Can still consider something like an M-30 which came out in '82 (the Teac 2A/MB-20 was still being made, Teac vs Tascam overlap) It might look more complicated, but if you look and compare you will notice it borrowed ideas that originally go back to the 2A, 4 meters, 4 channel assign buttons (just added some colors to the pushbutton), etc.. The humble 2A is actually more ergonomic- note its upward slope, whereas the M-30 controls on the main area are at the same height as the meters- not thats it bad, its just an observation.

If you see an M-30 in well maintained condition and within your budget, you might choose that one as well and 'grow into it', but anyhow- a 2A/MB-20 can still get you going and allow you to enjoy your hobby, especially if you appreciate the vintage vibe it has.

Another very basic, low price mixer is a Tascam M-06, which can be found on Ebay, but I dont think its cut out for multitrack recording which a 2A can do with its output busses and channel assign switches. But you can still find the M-06 op manual online and its useful to read, as it shows diagrams to make it easier to visualize signal paths from the input thru the channels to the output.

 

[vihuela]

Thanks for considering the mixer I suggested, if you do look online for any, keep in mind, what I mentioned:

Its very useful to have the MB-20 meter bridge. If you look on Ebay, you will see Model 2, and 2A's, but not too many with the MB-20, which
usually adds to its price.

There were two versions of the 2A whereby one had faux wood side panels that look very nice and serve to tilt the MB-20 upward, which makes the 4 VU meters
easier to see. The other version has a bracket that attaches to the MB-20, which isnt tilted upward as much, though its still easy to see. Once you get used to the MB-20,
its a bit harder to adjust to say, a Tascam M-106, which only has two meters and are face-up- I have one, and find that I have to put a thick book underneath it to prop it up to see the meters at a better angle. Thats not to say the M-106 is not worthy, if you see a good deal on one, you might want to go for it, and even though its only 2 meters, its already part of the mixer, whereas with a 2A, you would need the additional MB-20, unless you dont mind working without one.

If you do get one, the hookup between the 3340, 2A and MB-20 is shown in the MB-20 op manual with a diagram, you just need some extra rca-rca cables to make the connections. The manual should be found online, but if you cant seem to find it, I can provide a copy or post the hookup diagram.

Some folks mentioned the concern of no xlr connectors or phantom power (which is also the same on M-106 by the way), so just curious what mic are you planning to use to record, is it a condensor mic?

You Can still consider something like an M-30 which came out in '82 (the Teac 2A/MB-20 was still being made, Teac vs Tascam overlap) It might look more complicated, but if you look and compare you will notice it borrowed ideas that originally go back to the 2A, 4 meters, 4 channel assign buttons (just added some colors to the pushbutton), etc.. The humble 2A is actually more ergonomic- note its upward slope, whereas the M-30 controls on the main area are at the same height as the meters- not thats it bad, its just an observation.

If you see an M-30 in well maintained condition and within your budget, you might choose that one as well and 'grow into it', but anyhow- a 2A/MB-20 can still get you going and allow you to enjoy your hobby, especially if you appreciate the vintage vibe it has.

Another very basic, low price mixer is a Tascam M-06, which can be found on Ebay, but I dont think its cut out for multitrack recording which a 2A can do with its output busses and channel assign switches. But you can still find the M-06 op manual online and its useful to read, as it shows diagrams to make it easier to visualize signal paths from the input thru the channels to the output.

Thanks gain for all the info. There’s an mb-20 on music go round website right now. Seems a bit pricey I think. No mention of the condition but I can email. Most often I’ve been using a dynamic lately, although I have a couple condensers and if need be I’ll just get an external phantom unit if I go with the mb-20 or similar.

 

[BeatleFred]

I did check the site you mentioned. That 2A/MB-20 looks pretty good, not like others I've seen on Ebay that dont appear as well maintained, thus why the price
is more. And having the MB-20 adds to its value. Some folks buy MB-20's that are listed by itself, without the 2A, as you can connect other devices to it for metering purposes, or just for some extra VU meter eye-candy.

Its always a good idea to reach out to the seller and get some details and background history. Clarify if the unit is being sold as-is or if they did any servicing on it, whether its cleaning the pots/switches, or any calibration and so forth. Based on that, you can see if they are negotiable on the price.

 

[BeatleFred]

Ps: You might be eager to do some of your own recording after you choose a mixer, but you can also start to become more familiarized with a mixer's signal routing functions without needing to set up mics and so forth.

One thing I found useful in the learning process, if you have a CD player, you can connect it to the mixer and record songs from your collection of music cd's onto the A-3340, just like many folks who did 'mix' tapes onto cassette back in the day.


Unlike cassettes, with a multitrack, you can record cd's in stereo pairs, such as 1&3 and 2&4. Without a mixer, you would have to connect the cd player to your hi fi amp's tape/rec play jacks to record and play back- just as it was with cassette decks, but since the A-3340 is a Multi-track, it has extra jacks, thus without a mixer, you would need to move cables from the amp's rec/play jacks to the 3340 every time that you moved from 1&3 to 2&4 to dub music onto from the cd player.

But with a mixer, such as the 2A/MB-20, you dont need to do that, you can use the mixer with its channel assign pushbuttons to select either 1&3, or 2&4, after you hook the up the equipment per the diagram in the MB-20 meter bridge op manual.

Thus, you can get some practice with settings levels and using the mixer to route signals, which can give you a headstart to gain some understanding when you begin doing your own recordings, being you already have some hands-on practice from dubbing cd's.

Its also good in that once you make a cd mix tape, you can play it back from time to time when you're not doing your own recordings- so that your A-3340 does not sit inactive too long, which is usually not beneficial for vintage tape machines, its good to give it some "exercise" on a regular basis.

 

[BeatleFred]

I love how my vintage 1978 Sansui G-9000 receiver matches up nicely with the A-3440 & 2A/MB-20.

12 VU meter eye candy when illuminated at night in the basement mancave

 

[ecc83]

"I’ll just get an external phantom unit if I go with the mb-20 or similar" Be wary of some of these. I bought one some years ago and it could barely put out 2mA before the voltage began to droop. I do recall a unit that was powered from a USB port being quite good.

The other thing I would check is that the 48V is properly isolated from the output to the pre amp and that there are no big voltage pulses as P power is turned on and off. Vintage kit such as discussed here was not designed to cope with 20V+ transients at their XLRs!

Dave.