Langevin Am16.. has it been DIYed ????

[gary o]

has this one been done Just read an old thread but lead nowhere .....were any boards available ??

I cant make boards was thinkin of makin electronics on matrix board ... di read something about the board being important to the sound ?
Dont mind buying a sowter OP tran..as long as circuit can work.

Any thoughts ...thanks

 

[emrr]

I think someone did, and I've also seen and heard a handbuilt breadboard version done with original iron that worked fine.

 

[jensenmann]

CJ DIYed one completely IIRC. Then there was a PCB offered, called Bellerophon - or something like that - by Chae of prodigy.com which uses Sowter iron. Some people (Cannikin?) built it with these PCBs. Myself racked four originals, pictures are over at twinX

 

[warpboy]

hello, I could be really interested !!
at this time I have a few infos...but no pcb design.
I'll put these infos here tonight or tomorrow.
:wink:

 

[ciminosound]

I'll look for the AM16 stuff I have. I think I have the pcb layout somewhere. Got it from CJ I think. I have an old page on Yahoo somewhere with some AM16 stuff that goes back to the time of the OLD BOARD.

God If I could every get all my resources organized!!!

 

[emrr]

There should be at least one giant thread here about this already. I remember it. It probably uses a code name.

 

[gary o]

Yeah theres a big thread ended about 3 years back, just do a search for AM16... The thread seemed to fizzle out ...I was wondering if it worked and with what transformers & how well it worked and so on, for my own use i was goin to solder the component on a matrix board....I wonder if i could do that then test it without splashing out on the Sowter...i dont mind the cost of tran as long as it A works B sounds good ...well maybe not as original, i have a lot of DIYed tube pres, I love em all but wanted another sound flavour.

 

[electrog]

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=2672&highlight=am16 is the above mention thread, for those interested.

 

[Rob Flinn]

Gary,

I have 2 originals at my studio, & they do sound good, but don't have loads of gain. So no recording nose flutes at 100yds with ribbon mics.

 

[gary o]

Hi Rob yeah wont be shoving one a them up me nose anyway if i can help it, I read somewhere they have lots a gain... maybe Im getting mixed up , either way doesnt matter to me, do your AM16s have original tranformers , I read about the very special type of OP tran so I was thinkin of the Sowter replacment & maybe something I have laying around for the input.

 

[Rob Flinn]

Gary,

My AM16's are original, so, yes, they do have original transformers.

The other thing for me, which would make me possibly question making them myself is that they aren't (or weren't when I bought them) that expensive in the 1st place. I think mine were about £150 each. So by the time you've added on some labour etc, you could almost have bought some real ones.

They only do about 40dB of gain, which is fixed, so the only way to reduce the gain is by the use of input or output attenuators.

 

[gary o]

Rob I think they going for about 700 pounds ish now.....

 

[emrr]

700 pounds ($1400) is an insane price. They sell for $250-$300US (125-150 pounds) apiece on a regular basis. Not worth DIY in my opinion, unless you have a reason to know you want the 'new iron sound'. Never mind matching transistors.....

 

[gary o]

I better goin check that...I had quick google ..i also saw theres a new version about $1700 stereo not got time to go and read properly im gonna read up later if $250 then I want one .........but I still wanna make somethin !.....anything ! :grin:

 

[cannikin]

yup I build the chae version.... Still is my main pre-amp in the studio

 

[maxwall]

Chae version ? never seen this one any info would be nice reading.

I'm trying to come up with some Spectra Sonics PCB's right know. mating them with 1:2 input and 1:1 output irons.

 

[Rob Flinn]

[quote author="maxwall"]Chae version ? never seen this one any info would be nice reading.[/quote]

The Chae version was a PCB produced by Chae who owns prodigy pro ( I think, which had 4 AM16's on 1 pcb & people used the Sowter transformers for !

 

[gary o]

So we have at least one vote to say DIY plus Sowter sound

 

[jensenmann]

[quote author="gary o"]So we have at least one vote to say DIY plus Sowter sound[/quote]
the price of the iron says no. For EU citizens it would mean 200€ per channel for the iron only. That´s heavy

 

[cannikin]

yeah its super expensive... but worth it if you do have the $$