Racking Spectra Sonics 101

[Christian]

Please keep the posts coming and if you could explain in a diagram regarding the grounding procedure it would be awesome. Seems easy enough, but I am about to start racking a few of these and all the visuals diagrams available would be awesome. How thick of wire for the ground, did you just stick with 22 or thicker?

Since there is no balanced out, would the circuit of the balanced output of the SSL pre work good here using the SSM2142 if you do not want to mess with transformers?

Thank you,
Chris

 

[matta]

Hey Guys,

Ray passed on his Grounding notes and drawing which I'm hosted up on my site. It is a Word Document.

Spectra Sonics 101 Grounding Scheme

Cheers

Matt

 

[matta]

Hi Guys,

These clips are courtesy of Ray who has got his 101's up and running (rather envious, but my time with come!).
He managed to do a couple passes with 3 pres, the details of which are below.

The mic was a Shure KSM44 set on cardiod, no pad or bass roll off...12th fret..Guitar was a Takamine N-10
on a recording guitar stand (so the position was the
same for all three)..I tried to gain stage them equally...

Mackie VLZ
API 312 with Melcor
Spectra Sonics 101

Enjoy!

Matt

 

[guavatone]

Nice, I've heard folks describe the Spectrasonics as "sweet". Now I know what they mean. I feel it really stands up to the API. And good thing the Mackie is there to laugh at.

The problem is that each performance is different. Ideally you'd want the same performance recorded to all three preamps. I am sure someone can explain the correct way to do this. And it would probably involve building another box. Just my 2cents.

Thanks for the samples!

OH! ....Ray, What XFRMs did you use on the SS? in/out?

 

[JustinS]

Interesting to hear... I agree though, kinda hard to make a super informed decision about what you're hearing with this kind of example - most of the differences in each sample could be attributed to how differently the snippet was played each time. Having said that, the 101 did sounded neat - my favourite of the bunch... The API w' melcor had an interesting prescence and I have to say, the Mackie didn't suck that much(a little bit gutless)... especially after a little compressing. What you really need is a mic splitter transformer, now that's a much more informative kind of test!

Justin

 

[raysolinski]

The input and output tranny's on the SS101's are opamp labs...t-25's (?)..1:1...I didn't mean for this to be scientific in any way ..I think the mackies are a little gutless and it really builds up in a multitrack mix.They sound okay with a track or two, or live where there is too much room noise to care..The 101's have a really pleasant high end to them...great on vox too.

Ray

 

[Bryson]

The 10 pin - AMP 583417-1 is good, but a 15 pin Amphenol as used with API 312 etc. will also work fine.

 

[Bryson]

 

[matta]

Throw someone a bone they want your arm, LOL

As Ray said it wasn't designed as a pre shootout and even with my deafening
ears I can hear the different tonal qualities between the 2. The API seems
'Clearer, and has a nice Top End' the Spectra Sonics is 'Warm & Smooth'.

Bryson thanks for the heads up with card connectors, what si that lovely
blue thing?

Cheers

Matt

 

[Bryson]

[quote author="matta"]

Bryson thanks for the heads up with card connectors, what si that lovely
blue thing?

Cheers

Matt[/quote]

An MXR Mini Limiter (a real atom smasher). Click on the pic for full size.
The ten pin AMP connector came with it, but fits the 101 nicely.

The batch of 101s I got came with the 15 pin connectors.

 

[matta]

Ah I see,

I've ordered some of the 10 pin ones from Digikey, I believe they fit
snuggly. That comp looks lovely. Have fun racking up the 101's. Out of
interest what is the Schematic of, a complete Spectra Sonics console?

Where did you get your 101 cards, if I can ask.

Also does anyone have an e-mail address for Spectra Sonics? I believe they
are still in business, but not making consoles, but have some old modules
around. The 501 Eq's look cool.

Cheers

Matt

 

[guavatone]

Doty was selling a bunch on BM. He was selling XFMRs too, He was parting out a console so he may have more. PM him.

PS. I didn't mean to belittle the great effort of posting these samples. My curiousity is more the reason for posting that comment. I do actually greatly appreciate the samples.

 

[matta]

Doty was selling a bunch on BM. He was selling XFMRs too, He was parting out a console so he may have more. PM him.

Thanks Guava,

I know, I got my cards from Doty :green: I was just wondering about the EQ's more and just touching base with SS in general.

No worries on the samples.

Matt

 

[wiz1der]

I was one of the people lucky enough to get a pair of these when Doty offered them in the black market. After Re-reading through the post a few times, I am sad to say that I am thinking about selling these. Even with the Go-between kits from JLM, I just don't see how I would wire this up. Do I need Iron? or not? What would I use as a pot for Variable gain?

Just so many questions that without a specific "dummy" drawing, (hook this (a) up to this (b)), I think I would be lost. So I may be offering these to some lucky soul.

:sad:

 

[JustinS]

Oh... hey in my earlier post I just went straight in and criticised the validity of the test... oops first thing I should have said is thanks for putting up the samples!! (my girlfriend would have killed me for that)...

And wiz1der - you'll need iron in (either a straight 1:1 600:600 tranny, or better a 1:2 150:600 tranny), I don't think the Spectrasonics are really setup for for variable gain... most people run them with either a variable pad on the input or output. So the way to hook these up would be xlr in -> JLM go between kit -> variable input pad -> input iron -> line amp -> optional output transformer -> xlr out.

Justin

 

[cwileyriser]

I'd love to see photos or schematics of finished, racked-up 101's if anyone is so inclined - or even just info on how what you set them up with. I'm working on some too. I was planning to use the JLM Go Between and the JLM DI, but am not sure on transformers. I'm hoping to be able to make a good choice the first time, so I don't spend a ton buying more than I need.

Thanks!

 

[matta]

Hey Chris,

Welcome to the Forum! I've seen your virtual face over at Tape Op, and had I had the money I would have taken your Valley stuff... was drooling...

Anyways, back to your question...

Most, if not all you need is in this thread. I would def. recommend getting some of Joe's kits, they are easy to use and take out alot of the guesswork and makes for neater wiring.

RE transformers you just want to make sure it the secondaries terminate at 600 ohm's which is what the pre wants to see. You can use either a 1:1 (600:600) or even a 2:1 (150:600 ohm) transformer. Personally I used an OEP, which is made in the UK, and good value for money.

RE a pic, here is a front view of my rack, the SS101's situated on the right.

Feel free to ask more questions if you need to.

Cheers

Matt

 

[87w]

Matt,

Very nice looking rack job. I've got a couple questions for you, if you don't mind my picking your brain. I just ordered a pair of these for myself and will be racking them either right before or right after I rack my Telefunken V672s, depending on which arrives first.

First off, that is a very pro looking front panel, where did you have it done?

Second, about the transformers. Did you end up using 600:600 or 150:600? I read in the manual that you posted that they reccomend using 600:600 for condensor mics and 150:600 for dyanamic mics. Have you run into any problems with this? For example, if you put in a 150:600 have you had issues running a condensor into it, or vice versa? Also, did you use an output transformer, or are you running unbalanced?

How did you resolve the gain set issue? Did you hardwire the amps at 50dB with a 42.2k resistor, and than use a variable input pad to set your level?

Anyway, the pre's look great. Thanks for posting the pic.

Sam

 

[cwileyriser]

Yes, nice-looking job! Sorry about the doofus post earlier. I hadn't noticed that the thread was 3 pages long! I had only read the first page.... Looking forward to getting more into this. Thanks to all for the resources so far.

 

[87w]

Hi all,

I'm reviving this thread because I'll be racking my spectra sonics soon, and have a couple questions before I order my parts.

I'm going to use the variable input pad from Joe's drawing on page one of this thread. Should that pot be audio taper or linear?

Also, I've got a ss103 line amp card. Any ideas on what I ought to do with this? Does anybody know if the pinout is the same as the 101s?

Thanks,
Sam