yamaha pm1000 converting it to tube

[versuviusx]

hi i was wondering if there was any way to convert the transistors to tube or IC chip that way i could turn up all the gain and not get as much noise or hiss. is this possible? please let me know.

 

[versuviusx]

does anyone know?

 

[fum]

Is there a way, always. Is it worth the significant effort. No.

If you want a tube mixer, why not buy one, or design one.

You might use the search feature for PM1000, to see of what mods have been discussed in the past.

Regards

ju

 

[blakbeltjonez]

i think you've got a pretty solid piece in the PM-1000 to start with - on a par with the old favorites like API/Neve/etc......

there's a couple of things that could be at play here.... has your PM-1000 been recapped/maintained or is it in 25-30 year old condition? components like electrolytic capacitors & resistors get old and go out of tolerance. that's a possibility, but...

more importantly, how are you using the PM-1000 and what are you interfacing it with? the channel inputs are all lo-Z transformer balanced mic inputs, nearly all of the outputs are +4 transformer balanced. if you have -10 unbalanced gear connected to the console and it's not properly done, you'll have a definite noise problem.


retrofitting the board would drastically change it and even if it were practical (in my mind it's an absolutely insane idea, but maybe someone out there would know better than me) the amount of work you'd have to put into it would be staggering. if it is the console that is truly the source of the noise and not some other issue like balanced/unbalanced mishmash of gear connected, maybe you'd be better off with something else rather than investing a lot of time and $$$$$ modding it.

i don't see how tube/IC stages woud improve upon it.... unless you were supremely lucky, all it could do would be to sound worse. investigate the other two scenarios first and see if it makes a difference. my #1 suspect would be the way other gear is connected. that's absolutely critical.

 

[Guest]

[quote author="versuviusx"]any way to convert the transistors to tube or IC chip [/quote]
Possibly to convert tube to transistor without
warranty void,
use this:
http://www.sigtel.com/tel_tech_fetrons.html
it is difficult to convert transistor to tube, but
use radioisotop instead of heating definetly make
it possible; or self emission:
and there are many people in army chip designers,
who designs self emission tube integrated circuit,
it was hit several years ago, but I have no PDF,
if someone have PDF for army tube NE5534s, he may put
it here

xvlk

 

[tubejay]

I would say it would be a waste of time to try and change it to tube. You'd be better of spending your money on a Presonus MP20, which uses 5532's. It's very quiet and clean.

If you have a lot of hiss from your PM1000, then there is probably something wrong with it. My PM1000 console is pretty darn quiet. The mic preamps are at least as quiet as my Neve 1272's. Are you taking a direct out from the echo send? I've heard that can be noisy...

 

[cannikin]

:grin:

 

[soundguy]

hijack!

If there are active components in the summing section, recap that first. Then bring up a channel and see if the noise changes. You can recap the entire console, if the noise is stemming ffrom the active summing, you are gonna hear it until you fix it, so I would do that first, then bring up channels and see what happens. At that point begin recapping channels.

If the caps in the summing are bad, chances are all the caps are on the way out, its likely they used all caps from the same batch when they assembled the console.

dave

 

[cannikin]

My Apologies for the hijack, won't happen again.


I started a new thread in regards to my issues:

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=67529#67529

Thanks for the advise soundguy

Cannikin
aka David

 

[raysolinski]

Last night a friend and I ran som A/B tests..I put my pm1000 up and he used his BAE 312..Same mic (70's U87)...The pm1000 was right there..just as quiet...both sounded very good and professional, just different...kinda like crayons in a box. My friend was totally impressed with the pm1000 and he has a boatload of good pre's at his disposal including 1272's, a Vox Box, Drawmer 1960 in addition to the 312 etc...
Per channel $$ wise you can't touch a pre of the quality of a pm1000..if yours is noisy you have some cap, wiring or resistor issues..tubes are all well and good but the sound is in the iron and good discrete design...

Ray

 

[versuviusx]

i'm getting my pm1000 recapped and but even after i've got that done i'm sure it will have some noise. i'm not sure if i could use ribbons with it. i have a grace 101 and i can crank it all the way up and no noise at all. it's pretty amazing. i was hoping maybe i could get the same 0 noise with the pm1000. we will see. thanks again

 

[blakbeltjonez]

a lot of mic pre's are just not designed to deliver the amount of clean gain you need for most ribbon mics, which have a very low output even compared to a mundane dynamic mic like a SM-57. the PM-1000 pre has truckloads of gain when using dynamics and condenser mics because those mics have a lot more output to begin with (especially condensers).

maybe you could change out the input transformers to help step up the signal before it hits the electronics? something hotter on the secondary side - i don't know much about transformer specifics, there are probably a couple dozen people on here that could steer you in the right direction. you could just do it to a couple of channels if you only use a pair of ribbons, i couldn't imagine that it would cost more than $100-200 to get a pair of really decent Jensen or Lundahls that would be up for the job. maybe even put in a switch to switch between the original and new tranny if the new one was too hot to be practical for other-than-ribbon mics.


to me, a simple change like that if it's possible makes a lot more sense than re-designing the wheel.

 

[tubejay]

I just used my PM1000 with a ribbon (royer 121) for the first time tonight. It sounded great. I have direct outs wired with 1:1 transformers, and they are a little quieter than the buss outs, but even there I was impressed with the gain. I used it on vocals and on a room sound, and it preformed great. I've been using my PM1000 a lot over the last 9 months (since I bought it) and I'm constantly impressed by the sound. The vocals I did tonight turned out really nice. I modified my EQ's as well, and that also sounds pretty cool. I made the 1KHz go down to about 700Hz, and it's a really broad bell. I highly recommend that mod. If you've got a full console, it's also kind of nice to have a few high shelving EQ's at 12KHz instead of 10KHz. It's worth the easy change.

 

[raysolinski]

Apples and oranges comparing a Grace 101 (IC chip based and balanced) to a pm1000 (Discrete transformer balanced)....these guys have plenty of gain..are you tapped off the right spot for your output? What are you using for a power supply? Did you ground the case lug of the input xlr? (really lowers the noise)..If I EVER see a whole console for sale within 400 miles of my house I am ALL over it!

Ray