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When I started describing the new test cart I was putting together to another member via messages, the first thing that popped into my mind was this old English saying about what a bride needs- I left off the bit about six pence in her shoe, because inflation has certainly changed that number quite a bit, and these days it would probably be replaced with a credit card in her shoe!
I still can't find my ACO Pacific stuff and my original Motu, or the 2014 MacBook Pro that has been a dedicated test computer for ages with Fuzzmeasure. And while I think the Pocket CLIO setup provides amazing value considering what it costs, the mic doesn't go as high as I'm used to, and that makes me uncomfortable about tweeter measurements. There's a lot of stuff happening in the above 20kHz area that we may need to know about and characterize to optimize the overall performance. That setup is on a Trinity cart from Costco, and includes the Benchmark Preamp, a Cambridge Audio power amp, and an iMac Pro for the computing duties, retired from mainly supporting my former career.
Well, I picked up some more stuff from CA storage early this month, and among that was another Trinity cart, slightly different configuration (didn't come with a bamboo top, but that's easily retrofitted). And that kicked off the idea of putting a new setup together, but trying to keep the cost as reasonable as possible... sort of a marriage of convenience!
Something Old...
Behringer A-500, originally bought years ago to make a lighter, smaller test setup when I was using an Aragon X3 three channel amp (HT stuff), but left in storage as Beverly's health and needs put an end to speaker development in the family room back in 2016. It uses my favorite Toshiba/Fairchild bipolar transistors, rated distortion under 0.01% at 100W, and nice and compact. Balanced inputs on both TRS and XLR.
Something New...
I tried to get another ACO Pacific PS6200 kit, but they aren't answering their quote requests and the order page is missing, so I think they may have gone the way of all things of the flesh, even though the web site is still up there. Maybe it's just a break... I hope so. But needs must, so after some research, I ordered a new Earthworks M30 30kHz rated microphone. Yeah, yeah, I should have gotten an M50, but besides being twice the cash, they're hard to find.
Earthworks M30
For the preamp, I had an impossible set of requirement- precision repeatable stepped volume control, preferably over 100 steps, under 0.01% distortion under almost any operating condition, balanced inputs and outputs, a remote control for volume, at least 12 dB of gain, and under $1,000. As expected, that only left one candidate standing, but of course, you probably can't believe that Schitt...
Freya S
I'm generally a Teledyne-LeCroy scope fan, and have a small 4 channel 100MHz Teledyne storage scope on the first rack setup for a long time. But curiously, the baby Teledyne looks IDENTICAL to a similarly spec'd SIGNLENT model, so I checked out some of the latter, and settled on this two channel 200MHz model... for full monitoring of test waveform voltages fed to the DUT driver.
SIGLENT SDS 1202X-E scope
It's amazing what you can get these days for well under $1K, if your needs are relatively modest. This even includes USB data collection and waveform export to a memory stick- like my other one. Price was right from Amazon.
Something Borrowed...
Didn't need the Motu M2 interface with the Pocket CLIO setup, so now it's over here with the 2nd test cart...
This replaced a tried and true TC Electronic interface that was equipped with Firewire but started going on the fritz in one channel back in 2021. The Motu has ESS Sabre DAC and ADAC, the specs are accordingly stellar, and the front panel realtime monitoring is a definite plus. This handles outputting the test waveform to the preamp, and the microphone back into the computer, via USBC. Phantom power is available to power condenser microphones like the M30.
Moto M2
Something Blue...
The Motu has some blue lights on it... does that count? Oh, and so does the SIGLENT scope! Got it covered now?
Mmmm,
I could probably get some blue cables somewhere...
I still can't find my ACO Pacific stuff and my original Motu, or the 2014 MacBook Pro that has been a dedicated test computer for ages with Fuzzmeasure. And while I think the Pocket CLIO setup provides amazing value considering what it costs, the mic doesn't go as high as I'm used to, and that makes me uncomfortable about tweeter measurements. There's a lot of stuff happening in the above 20kHz area that we may need to know about and characterize to optimize the overall performance. That setup is on a Trinity cart from Costco, and includes the Benchmark Preamp, a Cambridge Audio power amp, and an iMac Pro for the computing duties, retired from mainly supporting my former career.
Well, I picked up some more stuff from CA storage early this month, and among that was another Trinity cart, slightly different configuration (didn't come with a bamboo top, but that's easily retrofitted). And that kicked off the idea of putting a new setup together, but trying to keep the cost as reasonable as possible... sort of a marriage of convenience!
Something Old...
Behringer A-500, originally bought years ago to make a lighter, smaller test setup when I was using an Aragon X3 three channel amp (HT stuff), but left in storage as Beverly's health and needs put an end to speaker development in the family room back in 2016. It uses my favorite Toshiba/Fairchild bipolar transistors, rated distortion under 0.01% at 100W, and nice and compact. Balanced inputs on both TRS and XLR.
Something New...
I tried to get another ACO Pacific PS6200 kit, but they aren't answering their quote requests and the order page is missing, so I think they may have gone the way of all things of the flesh, even though the web site is still up there. Maybe it's just a break... I hope so. But needs must, so after some research, I ordered a new Earthworks M30 30kHz rated microphone. Yeah, yeah, I should have gotten an M50, but besides being twice the cash, they're hard to find.
Earthworks M30
For the preamp, I had an impossible set of requirement- precision repeatable stepped volume control, preferably over 100 steps, under 0.01% distortion under almost any operating condition, balanced inputs and outputs, a remote control for volume, at least 12 dB of gain, and under $1,000. As expected, that only left one candidate standing, but of course, you probably can't believe that Schitt...
Freya S
I'm generally a Teledyne-LeCroy scope fan, and have a small 4 channel 100MHz Teledyne storage scope on the first rack setup for a long time. But curiously, the baby Teledyne looks IDENTICAL to a similarly spec'd SIGNLENT model, so I checked out some of the latter, and settled on this two channel 200MHz model... for full monitoring of test waveform voltages fed to the DUT driver.
SIGLENT SDS 1202X-E scope
It's amazing what you can get these days for well under $1K, if your needs are relatively modest. This even includes USB data collection and waveform export to a memory stick- like my other one. Price was right from Amazon.
Something Borrowed...
Didn't need the Motu M2 interface with the Pocket CLIO setup, so now it's over here with the 2nd test cart...
This replaced a tried and true TC Electronic interface that was equipped with Firewire but started going on the fritz in one channel back in 2021. The Motu has ESS Sabre DAC and ADAC, the specs are accordingly stellar, and the front panel realtime monitoring is a definite plus. This handles outputting the test waveform to the preamp, and the microphone back into the computer, via USBC. Phantom power is available to power condenser microphones like the M30.
Moto M2
Something Blue...
The Motu has some blue lights on it... does that count? Oh, and so does the SIGLENT scope! Got it covered now?
Mmmm,
I could probably get some blue cables somewhere...
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