Allen & Heath Zed 10 |||| worth a closer look

[e.oelberg]

I looked around for a portable transparent mixer. While sonosax sound device etc make great stuff
I can't afford it. From all the small mixers I was most convinced by the 200€ A & H Zed 10. So I bought on... and guess what I did first ? I opened it! so whats inside: each channel is on seperate PCBs connected with a ribbon cable, the pots are mounted in the chassis. No SMD components, tons of chinese 47µ caps and MC4580 opamps. I changed the caps on one channel to panasonic FC and it is an improvement, not giant, but noticable. The PCB gives you one chance.

 

[e.oelberg]

some corrections

master channel is smd but has through hole caps. I changed all caps in the mixer for better quality Panssonic FR and sometimes higher values. Though 4580 Opamps the mixer sounds very transparent and nice now. This is the only small mixer on the market which is worth upgrading. I migh change the 4580 in the master channel for opa2209 smd.

 

[decentbad]

Nice one, good to know the PCB allows that,

This is a ZED 12-FX mono channel : http://tmkelleher.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/zed_12fz_mono_channel_direc.gif

I think I can spot the SMD opamp. It's not the same model but I imagine it's similar build. Are you sure there's no SMD opamps on the channel PCB ?

Also, does anyone have a zed 14 schematic?  Couldn't find one.

Thanks !