Chrome Heart
Well-known member
Does anyone know what opamps Black Lion uses in the mod of the 24 I/O analog section? They wont tell me and I was curious if anyone knew. Id like to check the specs.
MOTU Black Lion Mod 24 I/O
- Thread starter Chrome Heart
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Chrome Heart
Well-known member
I did ask and they wont say.
shabtek
Well-known member
edit: is it 'current production' service/mod?
living sounds
Well-known member
Do a search, it was mentioned either here or at gearslutz. They use a burr brown chip, I just cannot remember which right now.
Modding the chips won't affect the clocking or the switched power supply though. I modded a 2408 Mk3 with very nice opamps and caps and it didn't improve that much. IMHO it makes a lot more sense to buy an Alphalink or an Aurora and stop worrying about converters.
Modding the chips won't affect the clocking or the switched power supply though. I modded a 2408 Mk3 with very nice opamps and caps and it didn't improve that much. IMHO it makes a lot more sense to buy an Alphalink or an Aurora and stop worrying about converters.
Chrome Heart
Well-known member
Well if you actually did the mod and noticed little improvement, I really dont see the point in sending it off. I appreciate your input.
I agree, power supply mod is where it's at on this one, and everything needs a good clock. Black Lion has a clock that I've heard really great things about, no frills, just thrills and it's affordable. The 2408 is a pretty solid unit IMO
living sounds
Well-known member
I just remembered, they use a chip from AD, but I still don't remember which one, sorry.
According to this link
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/194132/0/
they use SA5532AP.
Which might be true, I've seen them in my BLA Sparrow (alongside LM4562).
Anyway, in the case of the 2408Mk3 the result of the replacement of opamps and caps (also in the PSU section, used Panasonic FM/FC, Elma Cerafine) was less than overwhelming. A good external clock didn't do much either. I have modded other converters before where the results were much more obvious.
This doesn't mean that a mod with better results can't be done. From what I've heard the Black Lion mod improves the device quite a lot. At this point you pay for their experience, they invested a lot of time to find out what works best I guess and they probably wrecked more than one unit in the process.
So, if you plan on sending it off that's probably a better idea than doing the mod yourself (provided they adress PSU and clocking as well). On the other hand, from what I've heard a converter that is good out of the box still sounds better. I finally bought an Aurora to end my converter odyssey, which was a big step up from all the modded converters.
According to this link
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/194132/0/
they use SA5532AP.
Which might be true, I've seen them in my BLA Sparrow (alongside LM4562).
Anyway, in the case of the 2408Mk3 the result of the replacement of opamps and caps (also in the PSU section, used Panasonic FM/FC, Elma Cerafine) was less than overwhelming. A good external clock didn't do much either. I have modded other converters before where the results were much more obvious.
This doesn't mean that a mod with better results can't be done. From what I've heard the Black Lion mod improves the device quite a lot. At this point you pay for their experience, they invested a lot of time to find out what works best I guess and they probably wrecked more than one unit in the process.
So, if you plan on sending it off that's probably a better idea than doing the mod yourself (provided they adress PSU and clocking as well). On the other hand, from what I've heard a converter that is good out of the box still sounds better. I finally bought an Aurora to end my converter odyssey, which was a big step up from all the modded converters.
