CAD Mixing Board-- Your Wisdom Graciously Requested

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Gregg Juke
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CAD Mixing Board-- Your Wisdom Graciously Requested

Post by Gregg Juke » Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:17 pm

OK, so this never happens to me, but it just did.

Too much detail to explain "how," but someone just dropped a CAD Maxcon Mixing System 32:8:2 console on me, for free. It's probably still worth at least a couple grand; brand new back in the day, it looks like they were retailing for $20,000...

The catch? It has no power supply. They are big, rack-mountable affairs; I can probably get one on-line for between $200-$400 (I've seen a few have been sold on e-bay). But until then, I have no way of knowing if any of the channels pass signal or if it even powers up at all. The reviews I've read have been spotty, some basically equating it with a "beautiful Italian sports car that's always in the shop" (I guess they were plagued with some major issues). So, what do I do?

It may work fine, it may need to be re-capped, it may need lots and lots of expensive work. I may have more trouble or have to spend more $$ on a power supply than I'd like, and I don't relish shelling-out the money only to find out the board is a huge boat anchor. On the other hand, I'd hate to pass something like this up; it's pretty amazing and I couldn't afford it right now at $2,000, let alone $20,000. The one thread that I could find about it here at the TOMB isn't very helpful (and it's pretty old-- 2007).

I could keep it, sell it, part it for channel strips, I suppose? Throw it out? (The very idea makes me cringe). Any wisdom to lay on me, boys and girls??

GJ
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Post by kslight » Wed Apr 22, 2015 5:33 pm

Were it me, unless I really needed it myself I would try to sell it untested. Between a power supply and assuming it needs some tech work, you'd be lucky to be out less than $600...probably more...

I've acquired a lot of things over the years and no cost or little cost just in the interest of selling or restoring and I'm kinda burnt out on it...but my thought process has always been that if I don't actually want it for myself, it's gotta be cheap and convenient to repair, and relatively easy to sell, for me to even bother.

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Post by dfuruta » Wed Apr 22, 2015 8:02 pm

What kind of power does it need? You might be able to rig something up yourself for less.

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Post by Jim Williams » Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:04 am

A couple of Power One linear modules can be wired up to power it. No need for a "re-cap", this is a servo design that doesn't have them.
Dump the upc quad opamps for National LME49740NA. You will also need to re-trim all the servo's.
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Post by honkyjonk » Thu Apr 23, 2015 9:01 am

I've done that a couple times (with 2 power one supplies) for the bi polar rails.

Both times I ended up going back to the original power supplies (not because the power one's didn't make it sound better) but because they always hum (mechanically in the room) like a mofo and I couldn't figure out how to solve that. Maybe some day I'll rig the one I have back up in some sort of machine room with a bunch of other noisy stuff.

By the way, I have 48 of those very chips Jim mentioned that I'll sell for cheap if you or anybody else wants them.
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Post by Studiodawg » Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:29 pm

I was in the CAD (Conneaut Audio Device) factory in Conneaut, Ohio years ago and saw one of their mixing consoles in-house. They have since moved their offices closer to Cleveland. As I recall, their senior service technician was still working with them and I was thinking that you might be able to speak to him directly by contacting CAD and asking for the service department...good luck!

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Post by snatchman » Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:57 pm

I had the pleasure ( or not) of working on one of these back in the 90's in a studio. It was a nice sounding console.....when it worked..!..Man, they had soooo many problems with that console that they finally sold it for about a grand or so and replaced it with a DDA..I think they had about 4 spare channel modules ( which where in banks of 4 if I remember correctly) just to keep the console running to get thru projects..As I stated, it sounded good but this one, wasn't very reliable..

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Post by Gregg Juke » Fri Apr 24, 2015 5:57 am

Unintentional double post deleted.

GJ
Last edited by Gregg Juke on Fri Apr 24, 2015 5:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Gregg Juke » Fri Apr 24, 2015 5:57 am

Yeah snatch ^^^^, probably 30-50% of the reviews I did see (perhaps tellingly over at GS, however) were about the console's "badness" (not in a good way).

Everybody, thank you for your replies, and SD, I may try to contact them directly so thanks for the heads-up. Keep them coming; I still really don't know what to do here and I'm in a quandary. This guy says to me "Oh, you want a board?" I said "sure." "He said, it's really big and heavy, and it doesn't have a 'plug'." I thought he meant it was some kind of powered live mixer, or maybe even a really nice (but much smaller) multiple input board. "Oh, probably just an IEC cord I can pick-up at the hardware store or Walmart or something." They dropped it off, and I walked into my room and said-- "DOH!"

I'd really hate to dump this without knowing if it's a priceless gem; it even came with the proper studio furniture to rest it on-- I've never had a real "desk" console for my own studio, and the inputs, outputs, inserts/auxes on this thing are more than a guy could dream for, but it may just be a very heavy collection of toasted parts...

I will try to let y'all know the outcome...

GJ
Gregg Juke
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Post by The Scum » Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:21 am

Do you have the manual and other documentation available?

Any future plans to get it running really hinge knowing how it's supposed to work.

If it's got the automation package, there might be some interlock between the main PSU and the automation PSU - powering up without both can damage things.

I've never actually used one, but there are lots of stories about scratchy pots. From Jim's comment, they're DC coupled, and the DC coupling drifts over time, inducing scratchiness. If you have documentation, there's probably a procedure for calibrating the offset.
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Post by snatchman » Fri Apr 24, 2015 3:24 pm

Gregg Juke wrote:Yeah snatch ^^^^, probably 30-50% of the reviews I did see (perhaps tellingly over at GS, however) were about the console's "badness" (not in a good way).

Everybody, thank you for your replies, and SD, I may try to contact them directly so thanks for the heads-up. Keep them coming; I still really don't know what to do here and I'm in a quandary. This guy says to me "Oh, you want a board?" I said "sure." "He said, it's really big and heavy, and it doesn't have a 'plug'." I thought he meant it was some kind of powered live mixer, or maybe even a really nice (but much smaller) multiple input board. "Oh, probably just an IEC cord I can pick-up at the hardware store or Walmart or something." They dropped it off, and I walked into my room and said-- "DOH!"

I'd really hate to dump this without knowing if it's a priceless gem; it even came with the proper studio furniture to rest it on-- I've never had a real "desk" console for my own studio, and the inputs, outputs, inserts/auxes on this thing are more than a guy could dream for, but it may just be a very heavy collection of toasted parts...

I will try to let y'all know the outcome...

GJ
Yeah, if the console would've worked consistently, I would've liked it..As I stated it sounded good..Since you was given this, maybe you can stream line it some how. Do away with the automation, make another frame,work over the input, buss, master modules and make a simple inline mixing console..Work up a good power supply and you may have something there.. If you do decide to part it out, let me know I may want a channel module..!..Good luck..

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Post by Jim Williams » Fri Apr 24, 2015 5:00 pm

I found working on those it was better to remove the servo trims and let them float and adjust on their own. That way there is no drift. LME's will also allow one to remove most of the servos and run it direct coupled. Most of the problems were bad solder connections to the aux pots and broken 12 mill traces.

Lesson: never use a digital layout autorouter when laying out analog circuits.
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