Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

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Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by alexdingley » Wed May 20, 2020 7:16 am

Hi there — 

I have a couple of persons Eureka channel strips, and:
  • they're older so they probably could stand to have the pots shot out with some contact cleaner
    They've never been "really great" sounding... just "pretty decent" to my ears
I've hard positive things online about the DIY mods, and I saw that Revive audio is selling their mail-in Eureka mod for $299 per unit.

Since I now have a kid, I'm pretty sure my days of indulging in the annual "big boy gear" purchase are probably gone for a while, I'm starting to look around at how I can spend less /but improve what I've already got. The DIY OP Amp mods seem like a really quick & cheap way to goose these up a bit, but I'm curious if anyone here has experience with the revive mods, and how a revive-modded unit stacks up against a stock model.

Would primarily use this on Acoustic Guitar / Bass DI / Vocals (if the improvement was substantial)

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by vvv » Wed May 20, 2020 7:30 am

Can't answer re mods, as my Eureka is stock.

FWIW, I agree with never been '"really great" sounding... just "pretty decent"' as a descrip, but for me that's a feature.

I think they are a very solid pre, very flexible and functional, without much "mojo"*, altho the impedance selector, and the saturation control and the EQ can create some.

Thing is, it's so good at being vanilla that that's how I use it, which really allows me to choose mics and even other or follow-up compressors for their flavor.

I do like mojo - I have a cuppla Meeks (including the VC1Q) that are instant color (that I now see as green :twisted: ). FWIW, just for context, I also have some other stuff including with tubes and iron ...

But when I want to set up and switch out mics, when I want a solid chain for vox (I pretty much leave mine tweaked to taste), and it's a bonus that it's so easy to use.

I mean at 2 x $299, unless you need 'em for stereo, I'd be looking for a third pre.


*mojo is like "warm" and "porn" - rather subjective, but for me that means "colored inna good way"; the Eureka is not transparent, but I tend to use it as "clean".
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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by markjazzbassist » Wed May 20, 2020 7:40 am

are you handy with a soldering iron? the revive mods i've seen for other items looks nice but it also looks like a ton of marketing mumbo jumbo. basically every listing says "wider soundstage, more bandwidth, clearer" etc etc. all they are doing in most cases is replacing opamps with newer faster ones (burr brown) and replacing caps with newer ones that haven't drifted and are tighter tolerance wise. This is stuff you can do yourself and save a ton of money. Sure it takes time, but once you get into it you'll open a whole world of higher end gear that is available is you build it yourself (CAPI) for cheap, or midrange gear that you can mod into higher end gear. On some listings i've seen them add Transformers or remove parts and re-route the electronics, if it's that kinda work then yeah probably worth it. but if it's opamps and caps, do it yourself.

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by digitaldrummer » Wed May 20, 2020 9:25 am

for $299 you can probably find something that would be more interesting to mod, or as is. IMO modding the Eureka would be "like polishing a turd"... I mean it's shiny now, but... :mrgreen:
and not that the Eurekas are turds, but their potential to improve is limited.
Last edited by digitaldrummer on Wed May 20, 2020 4:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by kslight » Wed May 20, 2020 1:26 pm

Even after spending $299 on top of whatever those cost new...is that really going to be better than something you could get for the same value? Their service is probably $295 in labor and $5 in components?

I kind of think all of the modding services are a little snake oil and a lot of marketing trying to feed on confirmation bias. YMMV

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by permanent hearing damage » Sat May 23, 2020 11:26 am

+1 on just getting something else.

i recognize you may not have a 500 rack (can be had used for fairly cheap), but you can get used capi modules for around $300 all the time, already assembled and they rock

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by Nick Sevilla » Sat May 23, 2020 5:47 pm

Save money, get one or a pair of these things:

https://warmaudio.com/microphone-preamps/
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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by alexdingley » Fri Jun 19, 2020 6:51 am

SO yeah — I've decided to re-evaluate some input-channel purchases... not gonna send these off, but I did buy some LT1357 ICs (because they're super cheap) to pop into the Eurekas to see if that makes any notable difference in the units.

Also, on the subject of their sound... the preamp pots are a little scratchy during the travel of the knob, so I'm hoping to clean those up a bit. A while back, I bought some de-oxit-D5 and de-oxit-G5, both of which were recommended by PMI audio to clean scratchy pots on my Toft ATB console. Is it a reasonable assumption that these two products would work equally well on any analog pots?

I'm just gonna make these last until I can save up for something much nicer — hopefully after the next two album projects I wrap, I can finally buy one REALLY GOOD input channel.

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by alexdingley » Fri Jun 19, 2020 6:51 am

SO yeah — I've decided to re-evaluate some input-channel purchases... not gonna send these off, but I did buy some LT1357 ICs (because they're super cheap) to pop into the Eurekas to see if that makes any notable difference in the units.

Also, on the subject of their sound... the preamp pots are a little scratchy during the travel of the knob, so I'm hoping to clean those up a bit. A while back, I bought some de-oxit-D5 and de-oxit-G5, both of which were recommended by PMI audio to clean scratchy pots on my Toft ATB console. Is it a reasonable assumption that these two products would work equally well on any analog pots?

I'm just gonna make these last until I can save up for something much nicer — hopefully after the next two album projects I wrap, I can finally buy one REALLY GOOD input channel.

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by alexdingley » Fri Jun 19, 2020 6:51 am

SO yeah — I've decided to re-evaluate some input-channel purchases... not gonna send these off, but I did buy some LT1357 ICs (because they're super cheap) to pop into the Eurekas to see if that makes any notable difference in the units.

Also, on the subject of their sound... the preamp pots are a little scratchy during the travel of the knob, so I'm hoping to clean those up a bit. A while back, I bought some de-oxit-D5 and de-oxit-G5, both of which were recommended by PMI audio to clean scratchy pots on my Toft ATB console. Is it a reasonable assumption that these two products would work equally well on any analog pots?

I'm just gonna make these last until I can save up for something much nicer — hopefully after the next two album projects I wrap, I can finally buy one REALLY GOOD input channel.

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by vvv » Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:58 pm

The De-oxit should be fine, yeah.

It's what I use when not messing things up with tuner cleaner (pedals).

But don't use it 3x - one application at a time should be good. :twisted:
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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by alexdingley » Sat Jun 20, 2020 5:50 am

Haha!
vvv wrote:
Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:58 pm
But don't use it 3x - :twisted:
Yeah, I don’t know what happened there... sometimes Safari acts a little weird in this MB

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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by vvv » Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:55 am

Y'know where it says, "zen recordist" under my name?

It should say, "resident doosh".
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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by The Scum » Sat Jun 20, 2020 12:36 pm

I don’t know what happened there...
It's what happens when you use the back button in your browser to try to get back to the forum after posting...
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Re: Presonus Eureka DIY Mods / Revive Audio Mods worth it?

Post by KuruPrionz » Fri Jan 21, 2022 11:38 pm

So yeah, I will admit that I'm bouncing a thread here and there while perusing the back pages. This one is relevant, I own 2 Eurekas and have an experience to share.
I've got both Eurekas racked up just above a Focusrite ISA One and a Blue Robbie. I like these preamps better than the preamps in the Eureka.
I plugged them into the Return so I have the compressor and the EQ and those can switch positions. There's better stuff if you have the $$$ but for what I have in them, they are fun to work with and sound nice.
I'm a songwriter who wants to record decent sounding demos more than anything else. This is a GREAT place, so many knowledgeable and helpful posters here - I've learned many useful things in 9 pages. There's more! Cheers, Kuru

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