#56 Apogee Ensemble Firewire teardown

[[[ Repair can be found here ]]]

This came up on eBay the other week as faulty - inputs 1/2 and outputs 1/2 seemingly dead. First instinct was, 'obviously', look up photos online in the hope of finding some internal shots. A few minutes later, bingo: four CS4272's in there. Now, what're the odds one of them is handling the bad pair of ins & outs? Quite a bit higher than the analog input of one, and the analog output of another to be bad, wouldn't you say? But let's not get ahead of ourselves (too much), and take things one step at a time...

#41 Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (1st gen) teardown & repair(?)

A local friend bought this slightly battle-scarred Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 off a buddy of his. The reported issue was some random / intermittent noise affecting only the inputs. Time will tell if that was conveyed to me accurately, or if it's a more global issue. First thing's first though - having a wee little look-see on the inside.

#36 TC Electronic Digital Konnekt x32 teardown and repair

We're having a "productive" period, as it turns out. This time around a TC Electronic Digital Konnekt x32 audio interface / digital patchbay is on the chopping block. Or on the operating table, rather - i do indeed hope to repair, rather than dismember and mutilate this thing.

I managed to catch this, along with a twin of its, for under $200 / 200e delivered, as a "job lot", both sold as untested / faulty. The first one was shown powered up and possibly working fine (several LEDs on the front panel being lit), so potentially fine, pending tests. This second one though, not quite so much - only the blue LED halo surrounding the power button lit.

#21 SM Pro Audio TB202 dual tube preamp / channel strip modding & upgrade

<Further developments can be found in parts two, three and four>

I'll admit, this was a bit of a lucky catch, in that it was mistakenly listed in the wrong eBay category, but one i "stalk" for good deals on certain faulty bits of audio gear. It was up for auction, there didn't seem to be much demand for it, and i ended up winning it for a mere 21 euros. About as much as the shipping for it ended up costing, oddly enough.

But still, even for some 40-odd bucks, not a bad little unit. Two channels, a (bare-bones-ish) compressor on each (1.5-10:1 ratio, 1ms/5ms attack, 500ms/1500ms release, at least according to the specs in the manual), as well as 3-band EQ (80Hz shelving / 1.8kHz bell / 8kHz shelving), and there's a tube / valve involved in the circuitry as well. If nothing else, i figured it would do nicely as a bass DI (or even an overdriven preamp, once some internal re-wiring is figured out and done).

#20 SM Pro Audio TB202 power supply repair

<Some sort of continuation from another post>

Buuuuut that brings us to what might as well amount up to the proverbial "elephant in the room" - the power supply. No markings or label anywhere on it - if i didn't know any better, i could almost say it never had any (no adhesive residues or anything). Fortunately, it was held together with four Phillips-head self-tapping screws, so "disrobing" it wasn't unecessarily traumatic. That being said, what greeted my eyes, sort of WAS.

#15 Alesis io|26 repair & modding

So, i got my hands on one of these Alesis io|26 interfaces for pretty cheap (50 bucks delivered). "Of course", i bought it as faulty (can you see a pattern yet?), with the already "classic" issue of dead Firewire chip (the ubiquitous Texas Instruments TSB41AB2).

I went for it mainly for two reasons. First, because i knew it was based on the TC Applied Technologies Dice II chip, and as such, should have flexible enough mixing / routing options; second, due to the ADAT inputs available. The sort of "added bonus", one might say, were the gain adjustments for the 8 analog (mic/line) inputs.

#9 Revisited: Amphion Impact 500 (DB Series DB5004) subwoofer amplifier - DONE!

Got the fresh parts the other week, and installed them all. That, plus rebuilding the two blown and "distressed" traces, respectively.