API re-issues the 550a!!!

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soundguy

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Jun 4, 2004
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Is anyone going to AES?

API is claiming an original reissue with snotty details about it on their website.

http://www.apiaudio.com/nw_440.html

If anyone goes to the show, can you find out if they are using their current 2520 (which would be my guess) or if they went back to an older version of the 2520 for this "all original right down to the wire gauge" reissue.

Exciting news either way. I hope its cheaper than the B. Interesting to see how this effects the vintage market.

dave
 
This makes me think, the original design, down to knobs and metalwork, was it so perfect that decades later they have not managed to produce anything better. Or maybe, oh how could I think this-forgive me, they are just cashing in on a no R&D needed project.
They should be inovating and leave the resurection to us. But I guess there will be a rave review in Mix and .......
Steve
 
I think a lot of it is marketing hype, I bet they use the same switches etc thats in the 550b, perhaps Im wrong, but I would get more excited about a 2520 from that period instead of the newer ones...

I know there is a deMedio console that has all the mic pres in the arm rest, the arm rest is on a hinge and you have to tilt it forward towards you to access the mic pres. I would bet the farm that that console probably still has a slide out coke mirror too.

I just got a quote from my dealer on these, available in january apparently and they are WAY more expensive than the B which IMO is just downright silly and totally taking advantage of the vintage hype around these, which is a total bummer. Would have been nice if they were at least the same price...

dave
 
"API pushes the envelope of flexibility further with selectable "old" or "new" compression. The old style uses the feedback type of compression found in the API 525, 1176 and Fairchild. The new style uses a feed forward type, similar to other popular compressors."

i liked this, the way somebody can't sell a compressor whithout mentioning fairchild! and the way the couldn't think of any feed forward compressors?!?
 
that probably has more to do with the fact that fairchild doesnt exist anymore and I suppose you can view 1176 as whatever you want, but I doubt api is gonna mention DBX in an ad who is still in business and a competitor, etc. Perhaps the real answer is there is no vintage fiending over feed forward compressors... I dont like the FF mode on the 2500 too much anyhow.

dave
 
Fairchild is still around, but I wish they wern't. Their BS170 fets pop like popcorn if you look at them wrong.

You're not buying your BS170's from
Ph-Logo.gif
?!?! :wink: :shock: :cry: :roll: :evil:


But serious, bad Fairchild discretes in general ? Just about to go for a bunch of various types of Fairchild JFETs... :cry: Bad idea ?
 
Thank's for the Phillips tip!

Well, the other day I tested about 50 ground fault sensors and about half were bad due to the Fairchilsd fets being blown.
Granted, nobody wears esd wristbands around here, but still, that's a bad fallout rate. Could be the heat from the wave solder machine, I don't know.
I wish the engineer had used transistors instead.
Sometimes you get someone with a pair of shoes that nukes everything in site. Had some white Raeboks like that. Walk two feet and you generate 50 kv.
 
They have the 1972 and the 2004 versions sitting side by side in a plexi case in their booth. They look reasonably similar. I'm sure it uses the latest 2520.
 
I recently got a pair of 550's from the 70's with green knobs. I put them up next to my pair of 550b's. Basically, the 550b's were a little tighter sounding, and on any given frequency, the +6 setting on the 550 was pretty mcuh equivalent to the +4 setting on the 550b, Im guessing this is just old parts aging. Neither 550 sounds exactly like the other and they dont match the new 550b's because they are 30 years old... I would be suprised if the new 550a's are going to sound tremendously different than a new 550b. I would be further shocked if they sounded MORE similar to my 550's than my new 550b's do. Im sure they will use the new opamps as well, its really just a choice of features, which more or less amounts to a hipass filter. Its sort of outrageous that API is asking ALOT more than the 550b for a unit that in the big picture probably sounds identical and has less features. I wish the price was similar on the two units... Where they are pricing it, you can get a real old one...

dave
 
Thank's for the Phillips tip!

Well, the other day I tested about 50 ground fault sensors and about half were bad due to the Fairchilsd fets being blown.
Granted, nobody wears esd wristbands around here, but still, that's a bad fallout rate. Could be the heat from the wave solder machine, I don't know.

No thanks, it's hard to tell if they're more sturdy, but I've never had problems with these. I'm not using them under your conditions though, but those Fairchilds look quite sensitive...
 
I had a chance to see the new re-issue 550A right next to the original at the AES show. It was dead nuts perfect. Right down to the ceramic caps soldered on the back of the pc board. All hand wired. The had the lid off of it. I will take some pics tomorrow. Quite a wiring job on those switches! Very compact unit. If the original had not been a little dirtier, I could not have told them apart, but, they didn't have them wired for listening, claiming that the show was a lousy place to audition them, and I couldn't agree more.

cj
 
chris-

can you get a definitive answer as to wether or not they are actually going to sell them for HUNDREDS more than the 550b, which so far as Im concerned is the same freaking EQ sonically...

dave
 
Hey Chris,

If you can post some pics of the new ones I'll post some pics of my old ones and we'll compare. When I see yours I'll try to shoot mine from the same angles.

That should be interesting. :thumb: :thumb:
 
OK.
I have about 90 pics from the show that i will organize and post links to.
cj
Seth was one of the Gecko brothers in "From Dusk til Dawn"
:razz:
 
OK, I had to take these thru the glass, so not much resolution.
The re-issue is on the right:

api_3.jpg


original:

api_2.jpg


re-issue:

api_1.jpg


the guy offered to take them out of the glass cage, but i didn't want to bother him.
cj
 

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