Getting to grips with Sony audio and the TA-F444ESX Sony’s video cameras and television receivers have always been held in high esteem, along with their professional series recorders and mixing desks. In the 1980s they were the first to release a CD player to the consumer market. Nothing unique from this highly innovative company. Then…
Pre-amp Circuits for turntable MM or MC reproduction Apologies for the lack of updates over the last few weeks, our scribe has been off ill for a few weeks. Here’s to a new session of articles and hopefully a little bit of invigoration to our framework. The true value of Vinyl It’s amazing how…
Focusrite 18i20 Release One As an avid user and lover of the Focusrite mic preamps I recently found my preamp had a broken button for the +48V phantom supply. As one part of the button had broken off I tried to find the missing part and try a quick fix. Since I had to open…
Bits, Bytes and Sampling – DIY DAC To kick off we need to piss of a couple of people, one being the high end user wanting the fastest sampling rate possible and the second, that cheap means nasty. A DIY DAC may mean a purchase and mod with better supply or even a build from…
Where to find transistor equivalents? Restoring old gear can be a nightmare when it comes to some of the more obscure transistor types, and a pretty expensive exercise as well. Transistor equivalents for substitution is often a necessity when repairing vintage gear. This applies equally well to silicon devices and not just Germanium. Years back…
Is vintage audio better than modern releases? (post 2000) This reminds me of the first argument I had regarding the merits of mechanical VU meters over LED. Yeah, we like vintage stuff, especially with those big VU meters. Hell, I was looking at the specs of the Pioneer SX-1980 the other evening and thought what…
What is the difference between Line and Microphone Inputs This is a question often asked in the forums, not necessarily as simplified as this but there is often ambiguity in the replies. So here we will look at what not to do and hopefully this will prevent mishaps in the inter-wiring of consumer and professional…
Sound City and analogue mixers I watched this movie a few weeks back and it had me intrigued on many levels. Not just the snippets of famous and much loved musical genius but the mere fact that one went to Sound City Studios to make music first and secondly to become famous. The legendary Neve 8078 in The…
Using Electronic switching to route signals As a follow up to our article on multiplexing (and demultiplexing) or MUX/DEMUX and running my own experimentation with a CD4051 it comes as no surprise that this chip works well but there are limitations. As I am no expert in this field I must confess that the biggest…
To upgrade or not to upgrade is the question So last year Focusrite decided to change their range of 1st gen Scarlett series to 2nd generation and I found myself looking at my older 18i20 unit which had just lost a couple of bucks in value. Scary stuff, but not as scary as vehicle depreciation.…
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