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another fairchild

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:56 pm
by drewbass
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fairchild-663-Optic ... dZViewItem

how common are these? does anyone know about them/used them?
i think i have to get one. the last one went for $400.

if this is more of a gear talk question sorry!
d

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:23 am
by Drew's Analog Planet
Y'know, just because it says Fairchild, that's no reason to buy it. There's crappy cheap Neve stuff, too, and people buy it every day because it says Neve, and two months later, they're putting it back on EBay. The Fairchild 663 is $400 for a reason.

The good Fairchild gear, like the good Neve Gear (etc), is beyond affordability. Like mom said, "You get what you pay for".

Use the $400 to buy an SM7.

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:43 am
by drewbass
thanks for your response! so can anyone answer the questions:

how common are these?
anyone used them, own one?

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:56 am
by blakbeltjonez
drewbass wrote:thanks for your response! so can anyone answer the questions:

how common are these?
anyone used them, own one?
i would imagine that an awful lot of them got junked, probably fairly uncommon now but then any audio gear that is 30+ years old is by default. the good stuff has mostly been picked over by now.

this topic has come up many times on various audio boards over hte years and the universal consensus by those that have ran across the 663 is that they were never ever all that great even when they were new, so the survivors currently enjoy dubious "vintage" status like so much other mediocre old gear. if the price was super cheap and you had a power supply already to run it, it might be worth it to see for yourself. or maybe to tinker with the circuit to make it better

you could do a search on Google or Dogpile and find the old discussions

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:41 am
by nick_a
i got one a long time ago. i think i've used it once. maybe twice. it sucks. sounds like a shitty dbx to me. nothing interesting or mindblowing at all.