Gates level Devil alignment / balance?
- Thread starter mkiijam
- Start date
Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:
Perhaps easier if you post references, schematic and manual?
Brian Roth
Well-known member
I barely recall this from maybe a decade or more ago....IIRC, there is some sort of internal tone generator inside the circuitry used for doing the balancing adjustments. Been too long, so sorry I don't recall more. And the Gates docs are As Clear As Mud! lol
Bri
PS, here's a pic for anyone interested. It's giant in a rack for a mono unit!
https://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/Gates-L-devil.jpg
Bri
PS, here's a pic for anyone interested. It's giant in a rack for a mono unit!
https://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/Gates-L-devil.jpg
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...The "tone generator" is the filament winding of the power transformer. These things were a beast to keep lined up, they drifted badly, and the gain control, particularly the expansion, was wicked bad. But hey, it was 1958. The "balancing" procedure basically sets up the differential amp to null common-mode signals, thus to reject control voltage feed-through, a condition that was temporary at best.
For the time, the manuals were actually not bad. At least the published a full parts list and schematic with test points. Find that today. What was clear as mud was the audio.
These things were responsible for the 1960s crowd noise "rush up" during commentary pauses of sports broadcasts. They were only used at stations until something better came along, or those that could only afford Gates gear, which was meant to be....um....affordable.
The entire Gates business model focussed on making affordable gear for the massive number of small stations getting new licenses for the first 30 years, and their products peaked in the late 1950s. In 1957 Gates was purchased by Harris Intertype, and under the Harris name, they constantly tried for lower cost products. The Level Devil was definitely from those days when Gates became known as the "Quincy Tin Works" for it's cheap products. Whereas the much sought-after Sta-Level was produced before Harris took over, the Level Devil was after. The Sta-Level was accidentally sort of good, and the Level Devil is sort of the other direction. Just because it has tubes and transformers doesn't mean it's a good design. Every one of them was taken out of service as soon as something better was available. Which didn't take long. And I say honestly, I don't miss the Level Devils that were in my life. The name was entirely appropriate.
In 1975 Harris Intertype ditched the Gates name completely along with the "Intertype" designation, and made a play for bigger higher quality markets. They sort of won some of it for a while, but still concentrated on the small stations with products like the MW-1, the first "practical" all solid-state 1kW AM transmitter at a time when competing companies like RCA still sold tube rigs. Harris is now Gates Air and doesn't make studio audio products at all. They make transmitters and audio transport systems (studio-to-transmitter links).
