Behringer ADA8000 modifications..

[iangomes]

I'll be honest. I don't feel like reading this whole thread but can someone tell me if it's actually possible to get these things to sound ok?

simply put, not a whole lot, read the thread lazy-bones

 

[s2udio]

Seems the norm with webculture nowadays...can't be arsed to read..please spoonfeed me !!

 

[danjpiscina]

Seems the norm with webculture nowadays...can't be arsed to read..please spoonfeed me !!

pretty much. especially when it comes to a topic like this. "make a piece of Behringer audio gear sound good". yeah right. any step past midi processing seems to be a waste of time with them! Ian saved my time.

 

[Whoops]

Was anyone ever able to bypass the Mic Pres?

 

[llanafreak44]

Come on guys, no one could possibly know why I'm getting extreme hum? It's not my power, because I've used other preamps/recorders without any problem. The hum is WAY too extreme to even record anything, plus the stacking of it makes it even more brutal.

 

[Andy Peters]

Was anyone ever able to bypass the Mic Pres?

Do you have the schematic? That will give you a clue ...

=a

 

[skipwave]

Was anyone ever able to bypass the Mic Pres?

Yes, some pages back the mod was described in detail. The ribbon cable from the frontpanel-mounted pcb to the converter pcb is the easiest access tot he converter inputs.

EDIT: my bad, in another thread (though PRR said the same thing early in this thread): http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=7032.msg195913#msg195913

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=7032.msg83384#msg83384

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=7032.msg129594#msg129594

 

[BYacey]

Sorry for the uneccesary post. I found ssltech's thread covering this.

I bought 3 of these and they run HOT. Has anyone else experienced this? I'll have to check the voltage drop across the regulators and see why they are such a space heater. The specs indicate they will run on as low as 100V AC line voltage.

 

[Stagefright13]

Actually a lot of equipment runs hot. It worked just fine. Just like a car is designed so the pistons don't melt on your way to work. Even tho they are on fire the whole way.

Not to say the equipment won't last longer with a fan in your rack. And properly spacing hot equipment for ventilation. I have a fan for my reverbs because they put that ADA to shame heat wise...

The unit sounded fine the way it was. If ya can't make a good recording with it then the problem was not with that. I think modding it is a waste of time.

John

 

[shabtek]

somewhere back in this thread (?) it is stated:
too much V on the secondary of the PT...regs are prone to failure...make ps external, replace pt, add some high watt R's to drop V/disipate some W. add heat sinkage. autoform-down the mains, etc.

 

[jdbakker]

somewhere back in this thread (?)

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=20591.0

JDB.

 

[smallbutfine]

Well, now it cannot be overlooked anymore....(psu improvement/fix)^^^

Come on guys, no one could possibly know why I'm getting extreme hum? It's not my power, because I've used other preamps/recorders without any problem. The hum is WAY too extreme to even record anything, plus the stacking of it makes it even more brutal.

Well, maybe not the power but I guess the psu of the Behringer or a grounding problem inside the box or the rack (or your studio power).
The fact that other gear runs fine does not automatically mean that power could not be the problem...

 

[Govinda Doyle]

I read through most of this thread,
I have indeed had my tech mod 3 ada 8000's and i can tell you it is well worth it!
I'm fairly technically minded but i'm no tech so i will try and tell what we did,

1st thing was we change the 4 quad op amps on the digital converter board to OPA's i don't know the model but i can easily find out, they were around $10-20 each and the difference for me going recording through fully discrete preamps and back into my console for mixing was night and day... acoustic guitar and hit hats suddenly came to life, vocals opened up with a lot more air and smoother tighter low mids.

2nd thing was we changed all the caps to i nikon (i think) low ESR caps, also changed the dodgy bulging power caps which it seems were about to explode! To be honest i did not hear a lot of difference with this mod but the bottom end seemed to tighten up.

3rd thang was we bypassed the crap ass preamp section and going using resistors to pad down the level i believe we went in balanced, taking the preamps out of the equation also made a possibly a 10% difference, however biggest difference was replacing the TL74's with the OPA op amps period! replacing the op amps is really tricky if the pads get heated up the tracks simply fall off so its not for 2st time DIY's i have made countless cables, eqs for console and a few preamps and i would not attempt it. The behringer after the mod was put next to an apogee duet and it was seriously as good... now i know the duet isn't the Ad16x or da16x but its also not at the same price point!
Hope i have been a help?
Govinda

ps i just need to re rack them then they are no longer horrible behringers haha... kinda ashamed i own them haha!

 

[audiophreak]

Hi,
  I have a presonus FP10 and was wondering if this mod could be done to it, I was thinking of trying it to bypass the pre's and use it for the converters, then ran across this thread, any thoughts ?

  thanks,
            Chip

 

[Govinda Doyle]

Hey Chip!
Its possible for sure!
Just need most likely the circuit diagrams!
G

 

[audiophreak]

.. and that's the thing.... I called Presonus customer service .. didn't get past the first guy, " no we don't have the schematics "

  ... any ideas ?

 

[gyraf]

..find the guy that does have the schematics?

You can't do much without documentation.

Jakob E.

 

[iamabehr]

If anyone has a power supply that works from one of the ADA8000 that they have replaced I would really appreciate it I cant afford to buy one right now. I can cover the postage obviously, I dont mind if its the stock power supply!

Thanks
Mark

 

[tomcat]

Something different:

Afaik the ADA8000 DA outputs are not DC coupled. Do you guys think its easy and possible to make this two mods?

1. DA side DC coupled (bypass the two 22u caps on pin 1 & 2 of the AL1201!?)
2. enhance the voltage range for the DA output to min +/- 5 volts

Would give a nice and cheap IF for Motus Volta SW.

 

[Whoops]

I read through most of this thread,
I have indeed had my tech mod 3 ada 8000's and i can tell you it is well worth it!
I'm fairly technically minded but i'm no tech so i will try and tell what we did,

1st thing was we change the 4 quad op amps on the digital converter board to OPA's i don't know the model but i can easily find out, they were around $10-20 each and the difference for me going recording through fully discrete preamps and back into my console for mixing was night and day... acoustic guitar and hit hats suddenly came to life, vocals opened up with a lot more air and smoother tighter low mids.

2nd thing was we changed all the caps to i nikon (i think) low ESR caps, also changed the dodgy bulging power caps which it seems were about to explode! To be honest i did not hear a lot of difference with this mod but the bottom end seemed to tighten up.

3rd thang was we bypassed the crap ass preamp section and going using resistors to pad down the level i believe we went in balanced, taking the preamps out of the equation also made a possibly a 10% difference, however biggest difference was replacing the TL74's with the OPA op amps period! replacing the op amps is really tricky if the pads get heated up the tracks simply fall off so its not for 2st time DIY's i have made countless cables, eqs for console and a few preamps and i would not attempt it. The behringer after the mod was put next to an apogee duet and it was seriously as good... now i know the duet isn't the Ad16x or da16x but its also not at the same price point!
Hope i have been a help?
Govinda

ps i just need to re rack them then they are no longer horrible behringers haha... kinda ashamed i own them haha!

what OPA have you used?

thanks