Fun mic pres?

Meriphew · Post by **Meriphew** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:26 pm

Coco wrote:I just ordered one of the Chandler Germanium pres but I dont think they will be shipping for a while. Something tells me December or January. Anyway, the distortion knob looks like it could be fun with electric guitars.

Cool! Please give us a report after you play with it.

Coco · Post by **Coco** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:34 pm

Meriphew wrote:
Coco wrote:I just ordered one of the Chandler Germanium pres but I dont think they will be shipping for a while. Something tells me December or January. Anyway, the distortion knob looks like it could be fun with electric guitars.
Cool! Please give us a report after you play with it.

I am hoping it will show up by the time we do my band's guitar tracks next month but I am suspect that is wishful thinking, if not the TG-2 will have to do. 8) I figure anything Chandler puts out has to be pretty good so I just ordered one. The introductory price with no power supply is only $925 Canadian so what the heck.

soundguy · Post by **soundguy** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:35 pm

Meriphew wrote:I'm really excited about the new Chandler germanium pres (supposedly somewhat reminiscent of the Neve 1057's) that are coming out soon.

can I ask why?

have you ever looked at the standard to which that stuff is built?

Is there something really cool that Im missing about buying the most expensive product available in the marketplace and in return getting the most poorly made piece of junk?

I particularly enjoy the $.30 switch thats gonna break any day on my $4000 limiter. I shouldnt complain though, at least I have an older one that I got before they changed the transformers to some cheap copy as apparently the profit margin on that box wasnt high enough. Greed.

dave

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:23 pm

Dave, so awesome...

Every good tech guy I know is always SO pissed!!!

Awesome to have the reality check when I am just like a bunz up hippie about gear that SOUNDS good. I hardly ever open stuff up any more. I just use it until it breaks, then i get it fixed--repeat....

But for real do you like chandler stuff?

What pre's do you think are well made?

I always like to know what someone on the tech side of life thinks is worthy, because they always LAST!

nacho459 · Post by **nacho459** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:30 pm

Altec 1567! I just recapped mine with Solen caps, replaced all the rectifier and the diodes, and I am really digging this guy!

luckybastard · Post by **luckybastard** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:56 pm

what do you use the 1567 for?

soundguy · Post by **soundguy** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:55 pm

Joel-

Im not pissed. I suppose you can look at it like me being pissed, of course the reality is that the people buying this stuff are total suckers. I will add that I did pay for a TG-1 so include me on the sucker list. Out of most boutique stuff out there, I woudl estimate chandler to be at the higher end of profit margin. The stuff is made like shit with the cheapest parts he possibly could have put in there and the people there couldnt design a brown paper bag, let alone a mic pre. The errors that were made with the TG-1 are just plain embarrasing. Wade tried to explain to me several AES's ago that the 2254 and a 33609 were the same box when I asked which compressor his is a clone of. You've used both joel, I spare you my reaction to that statement, your imagination is goood enough to figure out my reply...

Take a look at the great river stuff. you could run one of those over with a truck. They sound awesome. The components inside were selected because they sound good, not because someone read online that they sound good and not because they got a deal on them. Dan is an incredibly smart dude and when you plug the gear in, the smart goods come out the speaker. the great river preamps are a really great value, I dont imagine great river is getting rich selling those, there is a great degree of quality passed on to the customer. With the chandler all you get is a great degree of marketing then you get to send it back when it breaks.

Pedulum gear is incredibly well made. it sounds great. the guy designing the stuff is a fantastic designer. the smart sound comes out the speaker when you listen to that stuff. Yes, its expensive but its awesome.

If the chandler stuff was so good, dont you think EMI would have backed him on the mixer he built instead of laughing at him and telling him to redesign it? Well shit, why bother redesigning it if you can just sell a piece of junk, thats so much easier. He's got his minions of people that will buy his shit as well as sellers which support him, so he can get away with it. If he spent as much time on the circuit as he did on the plastic knobs, he might be in good shape. If you knew the water under the bridge you wouldnt even laugh, its just plain sad.

dave

fremitus · Post by **fremitus** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:41 pm

i'm just gonna have to say that Wade is a great guy and that he will TOTALLY stand behind his shit. if something breaks or is fucked up, he will do just about anything to right the situation. one of the only companies in this biz that i can say that for.

i will agree that the great river/pendulum stuff has a higher build quality. i do think that in general the Chandler stuff does sound great. worth the price or the hype? probably not. none of this shit is.

admittedly, i do sell the gear too. without qualms. for some studios/ears, it's the right fit. that's the way i see it.

i'm psyched on the germanium pre's they're making becuase they are gonna make them fit into Paul Wolff Tonelux setup. that's hot.

soundguy · Post by **soundguy** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:57 pm

there's no excuse for putting a lorlin switch on a $2K box, let alone a $4K box. You put those things on a commercial product and you've just built junk, period. The fun part is when they break (and they all break) the little tensioning spring in there tends to fly out when the back of the switch enclosure splits off. Lucky for all of Wade's customers, he was too cheap to soldermask his PCB's (for the "vintage" look or more corner cutting bullshit, you decide) so when the spring flies out of the switch, since nothing is soldermasked, it can land oh, just about anywhere and cause a short and fry your board. This is what you get when you spend FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS on a chandler limiter. junk.

dave

pscottm · Post by **pscottm** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:27 pm

i used lorlins on my first DIY preamp proj. i agree, they are frighteningly plasticky and insight worry instantly but they're good for prototyping i guess. i kept them installed in my finished preamp about a week until i found something of decent quality, which didn't come cheap, but didn't break the bank either, and what an improvement. since that's the only thing that ever gets adjusted, figured it was worth the extra effort to at least prevent a negative tactile reaction. there's no doubt a $4000 limiter deserves much much better. never used a chandler item but egads i'd recognize the feel (and brittle clicking sound) of a lorlin a mile away. pretty criminal for such a fancy limiter.

numberthirty · Post by **numberthirty** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:50 pm

It's a positive that a person is willing to stand fix/stand behind a piece of equiptment. At the price range most of the Chandler equipment is selling at however, repair shouldn't be an issue. If you are willing to help out the customer, you could find a middle ground between profit vs. build quality. That said, there seems to be plenty of wiggle room for some compromise when it comes to Chandler gear. I could just be ignorant of component costs but, those switches always look totally janky. That's really lame when you're paying that much for a piece of equipment.

Meriphew · Post by **Meriphew** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 12:28 pm

soundguy wrote:
Meriphew wrote:I'm really excited about the new Chandler germanium pres (supposedly somewhat reminiscent of the Neve 1057's) that are coming out soon.
can I ask why?

have you ever looked at the standard to which that stuff is built?

Is there something really cool that Im missing about buying the most expensive product available in the marketplace and in return getting the most poorly made piece of junk?

I particularly enjoy the $.30 switch thats gonna break any day on my $4000 limiter. I shouldnt complain though, at least I have an older one that I got before they changed the transformers to some cheap copy as apparently the profit margin on that box wasnt high enough. Greed.

dave

Because I've really liked the way their pres sound. I've heard from a few people that 1057's are incredible for elect guitar, so the combination of Chandler doing a version of the 1057 sounds like a good thing to me. I'll have to claim ignorance on Chandlers build quality, as I don't own any Chandler stuff, just used it a few times.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:25 pm

soundguy wrote:Joel-

Im not pissed. I suppose you can look at it like me being pissed, of course the reality is that the people buying this stuff are total suckers. I will add that I did pay for a TG-1 so include me on the sucker list. Out of most boutique stuff out there, I woudl estimate chandler to be at the higher end of profit margin. The stuff is made like shit with the cheapest parts he possibly could have put in there and the people there couldnt design a brown paper bag, let alone a mic pre. The errors that were made with the TG-1 are just plain embarrasing. Wade tried to explain to me several AES's ago that the 2254 and a 33609 were the same box when I asked which compressor his is a clone of. You've used both joel, I spare you my reaction to that statement, your imagination is goood enough to figure out my reply...

Take a look at the great river stuff. you could run one of those over with a truck. They sound awesome. The components inside were selected because they sound good, not because someone read online that they sound good and not because they got a deal on them. Dan is an incredibly smart dude and when you plug the gear in, the smart goods come out the speaker. the great river preamps are a really great value, I dont imagine great river is getting rich selling those, there is a great degree of quality passed on to the customer. With the chandler all you get is a great degree of marketing then you get to send it back when it breaks.

Pedulum gear is incredibly well made. it sounds great. the guy designing the stuff is a fantastic designer. the smart sound comes out the speaker when you listen to that stuff. Yes, its expensive but its awesome.

If the chandler stuff was so good, dont you think EMI would have backed him on the mixer he built instead of laughing at him and telling him to redesign it? Well shit, why bother redesigning it if you can just sell a piece of junk, thats so much easier. He's got his minions of people that will buy his shit as well as sellers which support him, so he can get away with it. If he spent as much time on the circuit as he did on the plastic knobs, he might be in good shape. If you knew the water under the bridge you wouldnt even laugh, its just plain sad.

dave

Wow, thank you for explaining.For real. I laughed at the 2254/33609 part of the story....

nacho459 · Post by **nacho459** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:38 pm

soundguy wrote:there's no excuse for putting a lorlin switch on a $2K box, let alone a $4K box.

I use Lorlin switches all the time for my DIY stuff, and have yet to have a problem, but I do have a handfull in my workshop if and when one fails. That said, whenever I build something for someone I want it to be bullet proof. I wouldn't trust my reputation to a $2 switch. And not doing a solder mask is just plain stupid. That's gotta cost what, $1 a board?

Dot · Post by **Dot** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:43 pm

New pres I've been playing with that have some fun factor would be the A-Designs Pacifica, which is a Quad8-inspired pre, and the Neve Portico 5012.

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