SSL-2 audio interface

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I noticed today when I was running a loop from phones B to input that something was physically leaking into my cans plugged into phones A, independent of the phones A pot level
 
You must have the model 2+ ,
I only have the basic model 2
So I cant replicate the situation with the second HP output .
 
ADC noise floor.JPG
1688536351361.png

https://www.akm.com/content/dam/doc...dec/ak4621ef/ak4621ef-en-evaluationmanual.pdfQuite an interesting document here relating to the AD/DA chip in the SSL2/2+ ,
I found a graph of the A/D noise floor at 192khz and sure enough it more or less perfectly matches the curve I see in my own REW measurement of the AD inputs of the interface .

The obvious difference is in the size of the seemingly random negative going spikes , does this have an effect on the subjective or measured noise levels or are these effects masked ?
 
I'll be able to get a noise measurement with the SSL2 and the MKH416 a little later , it looks like it needs around 15-20 db gain for close speech to hit 0dbfs ,so its still maybe -90db s/n or better.
 
Mkh416 into SSL2 , min gain ,
everything you see in the LF and LMid is environmental noise , even though the window is shut and the mic is inside a padded box and acoustically isolated , it registers noise from the laptop with a strong harmonic at 24khz clearly visible when I put the mic in close to the fan , other harmonics further down also ,
If a fly scratches its bollocks on the other side of the room this thing picks it up ,
any miniscule noises related to bodily function of any kind , are clealy audible .
The directivity of the polar patern its instantly apparent over headphones ,
in comparrison to your usual LDC , it wipes the floor with it

I should be able to find some tubing with the correct inside diameter to make a temporary outer casework for these things , but I'll keep an eye out for other MKH series boddies which might have some compatibillity ,

Just in terms of sound , it doesnt like you getting in too close and personal , the shotgun tube keeps any performer well away from that zone normally , but with that gone and when distance to the capsule can be only a few cm, bass boost goes through the roof .
On the other hand singing or speaking across the capsule in fairly close gave and incredibly usable result ,

With the phenominally low noise you can easily sit this mic back 40-50cm from the sound source , say spoken word and crank up the gain ,
The electronics of the mic add nothing to the undelying noise of the preamp , that really is quite an accomplishment when you think how far back the mic design goes ,
This particular version with the SMD probably only dates back 15-20 years , but its indentical in performance to its older non SMD counterpart.

Its one of the best sounding mics my ears have ever heard and the SSL pre with the modded psu does it all the justice it deserves .


MKH416 min gain.JPG
 
So I got a new laptop on loan to check out ,it was submerged in water during the recent flooding but after carefully drying it out and cleaning it worked ! , latest Windows 11 on it .

The drivers for the SSL2 loaded up ok , and interface worked .
So then I went to add in the new firmware , which provides the stereo analog mix out as a pair of loopback inputs to the daw , the unit took the upgrade just fine , when I tried it again the loopback inputs appeared , but no sound , either in REW or Reaper .
I tried connecting it back to the old Windows 7 computer , again it worked and the loopback inputs appeared in the menu , but no sound ,

Incidentally the new firmware update and driver from SSL( V5.30.0.12 )allows multiple instances of SSL2/2+ ,SSL12 and Big Six driver to run concurrently on the system , thats to say if you have more than one SSL device they may be accessed from different softwares at the same time with a single driver package installed .

As far as Win 11 goes its going to take a few days to learn how to gut it properly of Cortana and Edge , the uninstall option is greyed out , presumably to prevent people who want to remove it ,
The key to getting Edge browser gone seems to be installing another browser as default first ,
It might take weeks or months to find every button and setting that compromises your privacy , reads your mind and then precisely targets you with advertising paid for by the companies they auction off your data ,live , in near realtime , its really quite an achievement .
It amounts to mind control and a new form of mental slavery , why anyone would want to build a DAW on the backend of this donkey of an OS is beyond me .

Theres a version of Win 7 Enterprise I still like very much , it allows a componentised build of the OS , only the relevant software for the hardware your using needs be loaded , many windows services which dont apply to your use case can be dispenced with , leading to a much more compact OS foot print and lower in terms of memory usage.
 

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