#42 Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL - revisited and revived!

[Part one can be found right over here]

Through a mix of patience, persistence and good luck, i managed to get my grubby mits on another, fully functional Audiobox 1818VSL, for considerably less than the 1-2 pricey ones available on eBay in Europe.

#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.

#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.

#39 M-Audio Profire 2626 teardown and repair

Ebay strikes again - this time, a pretty damn cheap (to acquire) M-Audio Profire 2626 Firewire audio interface. I maintain it's still the cheapest way, to this day, to get 24 inputs and outputs to and from a computer. Most other 1U (rackmount) interfaces will give you 8 mic preamps but only one bank of ADAT. The ones with two sets of ADAT I/O will cost you a pretty penny, though.

Either way, this was sold as "not detected by the computer", so my bet's on the Firewire chip being toast, "as usual". Can you see a pattern emerging here?

#38 Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 (1st gen) teardown

Yet another "sold as faulty" eBay catch - a nice little(?) Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 USB audio interface. Which turned out to actually have nothing at all wrong with it.

Admittedly, i went against the first commandment of teardowns (ie. "Don't turn it on; take it apaaaah't!.."), but only because it was the first troubleshooting step, and it used the same drivers as my Scarlett 18i6 "daily driver".

#37 Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL teardown and troubleshooting (part 1)

Together with the pair of Konnekt x32's (one of which is dealt with in the previous write-up here), i also got one of these Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL's. Also sold as untested, but powered up and allegedly detected by a Mac, so i figured it couldn't have been too far gone (or fubar'd).

The reality of it turned out to be a wee bit more complicated than one might've hoped...

#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.

#34 MOTU Traveler mk3 teardown and repair

Hunting for faulty stuff on eBay has been fruitful yet again: this time, a MOTU Traveler mk3 Firewire audio interface. The reported issue was by now, the "classic", dead Firewire.

A pretty comprehensive little package, with loads of features shoehorned into quite a compact package - 1RU thickness / height, but only about 80% of the width.

#33 Superlux R102 active ribbon microphone teardown & reverse-engineering

By sheer luck / accident, the other week i refreshed my Facebook main page (or "news feed" or whatever), and the first thing i saw was an ad from one of the trading groups i'm in, about a Superlux R102 (mk1) ribbon mic for sale, for a measly 30e (~$32). The seller was in a (sort-of-nearby) town i was headed to just a few days later, so i jumped at the chance. Immaculate shape, fully functional, retails for about four times as much - why not?