MALATCHI PM 54 ?

[RodC]

The units I have worked on are Malatchi P20, P20-D, and the PM54.

The P20 is a preamp with no power supply and outputs that are meant to be inserted into the mix bus of the output unit. (Such as the PM54) The P20 has transformer inputs and relies on 741 Op amps. The transformers are pretty good sounding IMO, but are classic iron sounding. The op amps are probably their weakest point, but if you dig around there was a lot of audio equipment at the time using the same grade of op amps and still gained a lot of notoriety.

The P20-D is the same as the P20 but they removed the transformers, I guess to save money.

IIRC each of these have an RCA output on the back, but is before the gain control, so you get the full level. I modded mine an moved them to the same output as the signal going to the mix bus.


The PM54 looks like probably one of the last items they made, it is a 4 channel mixer with transformers on the inputs and outputs. It also has connectors that supply the power to the external preamps and allows the signal to be injected into its mix bus. I modded one of mine to have direct outputs on each of the 4 channels.

The mixer is a bit weird to use, but just think of it as a 2 channel output that you can fade either of the 4 channels to each side.

I left one of mine stock and I used to use it to mix down toms before I had 24 channels of input.

The owner went on to create a lighting control company, I tried to email him when I first found these units, but I didn't get a response.

Check out this issue of Billboard mag for a good article (Page 32 or search it for Malatchi):

http://books.google.com/books?id=lAkEAA ... &q&f=false



There are several other mentions of the company in Bilboard if you search Google books, such as this one -

http://books.google.com/books?id=xiQEAA ... &q&f=false

[elam]

RodC thanks a lot for making these info public.It will be more useful than a PM! Not that I got a problem with Fonzi ... but I really appreciate that you share your hard work.

I've downloaded the 2 billboard papers and read them before I hit you up.

As for the PM54 EC I got here, it seems to be similar to the PM20-D that you mentioned.No transformer.As the screws still in place, I thought some greedy MF thief them!

I will have them checked,but the mods that you did make sense (direct out is a must for me and move the output to the 2bus also).

Thanks again Rod,and don't go too far, as I'm sure that I'll have some questions soon...

[drumsound]

Well, here's all I remember about it then: It was this one episode (might have been a two-parter?), where Fonzie and his ex, Pinkie Tuscadero, get involved with a demolition derby race. I think the dudes were actually the _Villachi_ brothers, not "Malatchi." Anyway, they used to gang-up on opponents and crash into their flank, which was called the "Villachi Crunch," IIRC. Many episodes later, the fetching and mellifluous Suzy Quatro co-starred as Pinkie's rockin' little sister, Leather Tuscadero...

Oh, waitaminute; you meant info on the mixer??

GJ

IT totally was a two-parter. The Mallachi brothers hand the Fonz stalled out and were in position for the crunch and the "to be continued " splash screen came up.

[elam]

Rod, do you know what the little black switch are for on the board ?