Looking for any info or anecdotes about PureAnalog or Charles McHan. Starting this thread to preserve any information and documents that might exist.
Have this on loan from a friend and probably going to purchase from him because I’m really liking the sound of it a lot. This is a cool vari mu comp based on a Sta Level with various options for dual mono, stereo, or mid side and was built by a company (person?) called PureAnalog who seemingly disappeared without a trace (mirror link). This model is called the M/SLeVeL (???) but I found one mention of a PureAnalog “Variable Moo” model (mirror link) and this might be two of those linked together.
There is a Gearspace thread about PureAnalog offering a dual Sta Level in one box (mirror link) designed by a certain Charles McHan and while there is some information about him as a person and legacy as a radio tech, it is very difficult to find any information about the company PureAnalog or anyone else associated. Any mention of McHan discusses that he was a master of modifying Sta Level comps and as you can see, the design of this piece is pretty much an Sta Level with different tubes and some mods, such as replacing the 6AL5 with a pair of diodes among others.
Anyhow, this unit has a detailed instruction manual which confirmed a “lifetime warranty” but no contact information and unfortunately Charles McHan passed away last year. Luckily, there was a schematic included so I have attached that here along with the manual for archival purposes, seeing as so little information exists about this company and its products.
some other archived links regarding PureAnalog that I saved with Wayback Machine because there is just so little info:
So how does it sound? Really damn good and has an interesting, useful feature set. Pretty clean but it’s doing the thing -- a studio I used to work out of had the Retro Instruments Sta Level and I used that piece extensively so I'm familiar with the Sta Level functionality. One channel is a little noisy when you have it running pretty hot and the VU meter on the bottom unit is a little finicky, so it needs a checkup for sure. I haven’t cracked this one open yet to see what’s going on inside because we already have it working on a mix
Have this on loan from a friend and probably going to purchase from him because I’m really liking the sound of it a lot. This is a cool vari mu comp based on a Sta Level with various options for dual mono, stereo, or mid side and was built by a company (person?) called PureAnalog who seemingly disappeared without a trace (mirror link). This model is called the M/SLeVeL (???) but I found one mention of a PureAnalog “Variable Moo” model (mirror link) and this might be two of those linked together.
There is a Gearspace thread about PureAnalog offering a dual Sta Level in one box (mirror link) designed by a certain Charles McHan and while there is some information about him as a person and legacy as a radio tech, it is very difficult to find any information about the company PureAnalog or anyone else associated. Any mention of McHan discusses that he was a master of modifying Sta Level comps and as you can see, the design of this piece is pretty much an Sta Level with different tubes and some mods, such as replacing the 6AL5 with a pair of diodes among others.
Anyhow, this unit has a detailed instruction manual which confirmed a “lifetime warranty” but no contact information and unfortunately Charles McHan passed away last year. Luckily, there was a schematic included so I have attached that here along with the manual for archival purposes, seeing as so little information exists about this company and its products.
some other archived links regarding PureAnalog that I saved with Wayback Machine because there is just so little info:
- a sale listing of a dual vari mu by PureAnalog with good info in the listing description -- this one had Hammond transformers and appears to be closer to a true Sta Level
- link from dealer Vintageloop with some info on PureAnalog
- Gearspace thread about a mid/side box PureAnalog offered around 2009, probably a similar matrix as what is in my "M/SLevel" unit? (mirror link)
- unrelated testimonial from McHan about radio
So how does it sound? Really damn good and has an interesting, useful feature set. Pretty clean but it’s doing the thing -- a studio I used to work out of had the Retro Instruments Sta Level and I used that piece extensively so I'm familiar with the Sta Level functionality. One channel is a little noisy when you have it running pretty hot and the VU meter on the bottom unit is a little finicky, so it needs a checkup for sure. I haven’t cracked this one open yet to see what’s going on inside because we already have it working on a mix
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