Hi, new to DIY and questions re Neve BA283, and Bellari....

Hi,

I'm new to DIY, and to this forum, and this looked like a fine place to gain some knowledge. May the power of the soldering iron go to anyone reading this.

I have a question re: NEVE BA283 amp cards. how different are these to 183 amps? I understand that the 183 cards are half stuffed, but can they be adpated into 283 cards? I am interested in building up N72 mic pres, but i'm scared to start completely from scratch!

Also, i have heard of modifications to the Bellari products, and i'm intrigued by the RP583 (dual mono opto compressor). I wonder if anyone has any firm information about suitable op amps to subsitute, tubes etc. i have only found very vague information after surfing the web and this forum.

thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me!!

kind regards,
Joel.

i'm intrigued by the RP583

Click to expand...

Try something simple for starters, like the OPA2604.

hi joel-

welcome to the forum! finest place online.

the 183 was just an earlier version of the 283, the artwork was different but I believe the circuit to be the same. I have 1272 with both 183 and 283 circuits and cant tell any difference between the two sonically, the output transistor has more of a sonic impact than the layout of the board in those two cases.

both the 183 and 283 were available I believe with either 1 or 2 stages stuffed, either card in "AM" configuration could be fully populated for "AV" configuration. The difference between the two was the layout, not the circuit.

The N72 kit is monkey stuff, anyone can put one of those together, if you buy the chasis, its one of the easiest things you could possibly try to do so far as preamps go. If you buy a 283 card and have to drill your own chasis and do all the mounting and all the wiring it will be 25 times more work. Its not difficult stuff but its more work, the n72 is all self contained and a very easy place to start if you can solder halfway decently. I wouldnt be afraid of that kit at all!

dave

Hi,
I have a Bellari RP503 modded with a NOS Telefunken 12AU7 Smoothplate, 4 x OPA2134PA opamps and one LT1469 in the opto compressor socket. It's socketed so it's easy to change opamps. The 2604s' were a bit noisey. It's really pretty nice now, smooth and clean. Stock it was trash. Something like a Groove Tube 12AU7 should be fine, and 1/4 the price of a NOS Telefunken.
mrc

[quote author="keyznstuff"]I am interested in building up N72 mic pres, but i'm scared to start completely from scratch![/quote]
Which N72 are you referring to? Seventh Circle makes a complete kit called N72 which is no-brainer, like soundguy said. A member here named Fabio Bauman also sells PCBs called N72 which you can easily find all of the parts for yourself and assemble. They're both just different approaches to creating a mic pre out of a BA283AV card + transformers, the way people do with N*eve 1272 modules. In either case the real work is already done for so it's not from scratch. Stuffing PCBs is fun and easy. Go for it!

[EDIT] I forgot to mention, re: 183. The circuit for the BA283 and 183 are the same, with the BA183 being larger and having slightly different arrangement of the components. The differences I've found between the two are the 183 has two wire links you must solder on top as opposed to just one on the 283. The shorter wire link on 183 is usually left out. Also, I've found different value tantalum caps stuffed on 183 cards, i.e. a 10uF where a 22uF should be. Low end sounds better if you rearrange them to be like the BA283 schematic. Overall the two cards sound identical and can be treated as such.