#74 Focusrite Saffire 6 USB 2.0 modding (for stand-alone operation)

First of all, the main issue with using this stand-alone (without a computer) is that the Xmos controller only enables the analog power supplies (the two MIC2505's and the LM3488) once it's done whatever handshaking it needs to, with the computer. But since i'd only need / want it to act as a rudimentary preamp / mixer / headphone amplifier, i kinda-sorta need the analog supplies working.

#71 Shure 55SH Series II "Elvis mic" teardown & repair

The practical side of this one was performed and documented a couple months back, but since i've had this back-log to work through, the text is only getting written now. But good things come to those who wait, right? Or so i've heard...

Regardless, i couldn't not grab this deal when i saw it. A shure 55SH "Elvis mic", with allegedly low(ered) output, for 75eu shipped (considering it retails around 160-ish). Now, granted, i HAD peeked around the interwebs beforehand, and it seemed that, at least in some cases, the on/off switch could be a suspect. But on the other hand, even IF the capsule itself turned out to be a dud, i could still MacGyver another capsule in there, one way or another (possibly from a Grundig GDSM-202, but shhhhh!...). Aesthetically it was in good shape, so why not?

#57 Apogee Ensemble Firewire pt.2 - the repair

I was considering making the previous post about the repair as well, but once the teardown part of it was done, i decided it had gotten long enough already, so here's the testing and (hopefully) repair of it, separately.

#55 Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (1st gen) teardown & modding

I had fiddled with one of these a couple years back, but here's another chance to take a look inside a (1st gen) Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, their second-smallest USB audio interface of the range.

#54 Recycled backlight LED strip ambient lighting

What with winter drawing closer, and the days (as in daylight) getting shorter up here in the north, one tends to need to turn on the lights more and earlier than in summertime. And since i'm the gathering type, i figured it's about time i put some previously collected materials to (good?) use.

#53 JMicron JM20330-based mSATA to ZIF-ATA adapter power modding

A few years ago, in the quest for more storage space, power saving, weight reduction and eliminating sensitivity to shock, i decided to upgrade my old iPod Video (5.5G) from the stock 80GB hard-drive to a 256GB SSD, with the aid of an mSATA to ZIF-ATA adapter, and some mods to the "aftermarket" Rockbox firmware.

... Except that recently, for whatever reason, it's been kinda flaky, and ended up giving up altogether. To aid with stability, i had also performed some hardware mods on the power supply side of things (as well as on the iPod's mainboard). The rationale behind that, at least in part, was the source of the above-mentioned mods, so i'll need to transplant those to this newer one as well.

#52 Solar A2.7 & Fishman Fluence Keith Merrow, part two

Aaaaand it's back! Not because of technical issues though. Due to chance, and the limited speed of international shipping, only the day after the owner got his guitar back, did the Fishman rechargeable battery-pack get delivered, just only too late to include it in the previous operation. But no matter, this should be far less involved than that.

#51 Solar A2.7 & Fishman Fluence Keith Merrow & 5-way install

Local guitarist buddy time again (owner of the Fortin Grind and the Warwick bass amp featured here previously) - after taking several swings at it, he got fed up and let me have a go at installing a brand new set of Fishman Fluence Keith Merrow pickups into his Solar A2.7 guitar. Complete with some custom switching and whatnot, to take full advantage of the entire feature set the pickups offer.

#46 Tivoli Henry Kloss Model One teardown & repair

A client brought in this Tivoli Model One the other day, with symptoms of (lots of) noise. Once again, i went against the mantra of "don't turn it on; take it apaaaah't", but this time, for good reason - the thing isn't mine.

#44 Ram Audio S6000 teardown & repair (rebranded as LD Systems SP 6K)

A good buddy and neighbour of mine had one of his amps kick the bucket in the middle of a gig (one i was helping out on, as well). On the bright side, noone noticed, only when turning-off time came. The beast in question was one of his two LD Systems SP 6K amps (rebadged Ram Audio S6000).

#40 Fake "Beats" Bluetooth speaker teardown & mod

I got this handed in by a local friend the other day. It was apparently bought in Singapore a good few years ago, hasn't been used in quite a while, and i guess(?) the charging cable (slightly less usual mini-USB) got misplaced or something.

#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.

#35 Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP teardown and repair

Yet another sold-as-faulty eBay catch - a nice little Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP Firewire audio interface. The listing said:

"I bought this online and it is not working or it is not compatible with my computer. My computer is not recognising this audio interface. So I am selling it as not working."

 Fine by me. The photo of the back showed the Firewire port as looking quite pristine, so it wasn't a case of connector-inserted-upside-down. And for the price i won the auction for, it was worth the gamble. A frontal photo did show it powered up, so at the very least, it wasn't dead.

#32 M-Audio (Avid) Fast Track C600 teardown & repair

This little bugger, an M-Audio / Avid Fast Track C600, was listed as faulty on eBay - description said it would no longer power up, regardless of it being bus-powered or having its own external power supply connected. Got it shipped for 30eu / $30, so why not?

#31 Warwick ProFET 5.1 bass amplifier teardown & maintenance

A local buddy just brought this German beastie in, citing a dicky DI output, and an unhealthy-sounding fan. Well, when i say "German", i mean the brand itself; as one might expect, it's "obviously" made in China, as it says on the back. But isn't nearly everything (else), anyway?

#28 Active full-range surround speaker project (BN96-12832 & TPA3118)

Since the "unofficial" theme of this blog seems to be repair, recycling and repurposing (more or less), i finally got around to getting knee-deep into this idea, which i started devising quite a while ago - a pair of "slimline" surround speakers.

Disclaimers:
 - No, these are not meant (or supposed) to be "hi-fi". More just for a bit of "ambient noise", if you will, for movies with 5.1 soundtracks. That, and possibly alternative monitoring for checking mixes.
 - No, these are not meant to go terribly loud. Due to, let's call them, physical constraints, they'll be placed at the corners of my sofa (right up against the wall, opposite the TV and the "mains"), so no huge SPL's are required.

#26 Cheap & easy DIY LED light panels

Recycling's all the rage nowadays, right? Right..? Well, either way, freebie raw materials for projects are always welcome, that's something i'm pretty sure we can all agree on. Now, i'm not admitting to be a hoarder, far from it, but i kinda-sorta couldn't bring myself to throw away the dead (read: cracked) laptop LCDs that i had replaced for various clients at work. And what with "finally" expanding this blog onto YouTube, i figured i'd need some extra lighting for the workbench. Catching my drift yet?

#25 Behringer ADA8000 "Ultragain Digital" revival

I got my hands on one of these Behringer Ultragain Pro-8 Digital a few months ago, as faulty (as in, totally dead) for about 50$ shipped. Having done some preemptive googling before going for it, i was expecting the transformer to be toasted. Sure enough, that's exactly what the problem was - one half of the center-tapped primary measured in the hundreds of kohm, so pretty much open-circuit (as opposed to the 50-odd ohms the remaining good half measured).

Initially i was planning on finding / getting a "drop-in replacement" toroidal transformer, ie. similarly sized physically and power-wise, but with less insanely-high secondary voltages. The stock one, according to some "inspection notes" i found online, seems to have had roughly 2x20VAC windings for the analog +/-15V (meaning the voltage regulators had to "burn off" uselessly much power / voltage), 12VAC for the 5V regulators, and a whopping 58VAC winding for the phantom power regulator. That's about a 50% overkill across the board. One can only wonder just what possessed them to spec the transformer quite like that, especially since it must've been a custom order - you'll rarely find retail units with more than two (identical) secondary windings, and when you do, expect to pay a pretty penny for'em.

#24 SM Pro Audio TB202 dual tube preamp / channel strip modding & upgrade, part 4

On the note of front panel switches, you might've noticed two extra ones, in the previous post (the part 3). One other idea had crossed my mind, already long before this second stage of modding. It took me a little while, but i managed to get my head around how to implement this. The idea was to be able to swap the order of the two processors in the signal path.

From the factory, as described in the "part one" post, the processing order is input - gain - tube - compressor - EQ - output. But in some cases, it can be desirable to have the EQ come before the compression stage. That way, one can attenuate certain frequency ranges that one would not want the compressor to react to (or conversely, boost ranges for the compressor to react to).

#23 SM Pro Audio TB202 dual tube preamp / channel strip modding & upgrade, part 3

Even before having received the thing, i had already started thinking of daisy-chaining the two channels. In the context of something like a bass preamplifier, for example, one would want a "clean" channel, perhaps with some heavy compression, in order to have a consistent signal (especially in the lower registers), as well as a "dirty" channel, with a high-passed signal having some distortion applied to it.