Behringer "Mic 502"

[inthered]

In the interest of modding exploration, I bought a Behringer 'Pre-Q', model MIC 502 on ebay for $50. I'm not familiar with Behringer's history, but this one was made in Germany and is physically pretty substantial. I opened it up and Lo! there's a toroidal power transformer, an ssm2017p per channel (I'm not saying the latter is spectacular, but it gives me more obvious drop-in replacement options).

I can't find much in the way of documentation on this thing. There's a page with specs from some vendor, http://www.geocities.com/xcvxcv65/behri ... re-amp.htm, and I see some usenet posts from people selling them around 2000-01.

Each channel has pad/phantom/phase and a tunable high-pass, which seems nice. I used it on some loud guitar overdubs this weekend and wasn't wowed, but I'm always willing to believe that I haven't figured out its strengths.

I wonder whether anyone on the board knows about this box, is using it / has used it, and (if so) has had any particularly positive or negative experiences with it.

Cheers!
Colin

[snatchman]

Yeah, I have one. Out of the box, it performs pretty good. I've used it for years and hadn't had any problems with it. It lacks "head-room" if you hit it too hard with a strong signal, but if you stay within it's limitations, it actually do pretty good! I actually sent mine to Matt at BlackLion and he modded it with Burr/Browns,caps,up-graded power-supply etc. It sounds more opened and detailed. The head-room still suffers, but as I stated, if you're careful with the input signal, it sounds good! Actually, after the mod it sounds better than the pres on my Digi-Max LT! ( if that's saying much.. )..... Oh yeah....I'm thinking of sending mine back to Matt to install transformers! If you note, Behringer left an optional spot on the PC board for this up-grade! Hope this helps!

[inthered]

I'm thinking of sending mine back to Matt to install transformers! If you note, Behringer left an optional spot on the PC board for this up-grade!

Holy crap! You're right, I see it. That's pretty amazing. Thanks, this totally helps. Would you mind replying or PMing me with how much the mods cost for yours?

I tried tracking a little more today and was impressed with how quiet the unit is. I generally don't have noise problems, except with the Behringer headphone amp I'm using. I realize that one piece of gear shouldn't indict an entire company, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I heard (that is to say, how little I heard).

-Colin

[snatchman]

Hey Colin, did you mean a price after I send it back for the transformer mod or the mods he have already done? Yeah I agree, stock, the mic pre is pretty quite.The op-amp that is in it ( SSM-2017) have been discontinued, but I think Burr/Brown makes a replacement.( which is what's in mine now). BTW...Matt is saying he now has an instrumentational op-amp that will replace the 2017 that really sounds good! Slew rate is very fast ( 350 volts per micro/sec. vs 18 volts per micro/sec. for the 2017). Should be pretty clean and quite! Also, the filter section really became useable after the mod. Really smooth sounding! PM me if you need additional info!......