Auditronics 501

[GeorgeinFlorida]

The 1980 article entitled[="http://www.reliablecapacitors.com/pickcap.htm"] "Picking Capacitors"[/] by Walter G. Jung and Richard Marsh concludes:

After we had gone through all of the above exercises and exorcised our complete system of unnecessary or poor-quality capacitors, the total degree of improvement was greater than any other improvement measure ever employed. With no capacitors (or clean capacitors), you begin to hear the music in a new light, one which is much more like the sound of the real thing. In fact, you will be able to differentiate subtleties you never before even realized existed. Your system simply becomes a new system, in terms of resolution and definition. The "solid-state sound" we've all heard discussed may be largely due to lousy electrolytics which by and large never got used in the signal path in the tube days.

When I read this article that last paragraph really made an impression. The more transparent the electro the better I think I'll like it. However, price is something of an issue. I couldn't possibly afford high-end boutique caps but a buck or so a piece is doable if they are really superior.

I think I'll order some of the Vishay BCs, both in 330uf and 470uf and take it from there.

Meanwhile, I'm still open to any and all suggestions!

 

[catastrophic]

I'm aware of the article you've posted, and i'm also aware that it was written in 1980...nearly 30 years later a good cap is a fairly transparent cap, and a bad cap isn't terrible.

the 501 is a good sounding board, and you won't make it sound bad with the wrong cap.

do you have the VCA controlled master outputs? in my board the master fader was a mono fader controlling a voltage for some VCAs which controlled the quad bus outputs. if you have those, you may want to consider ripping those out and putting in a nice stereo fader for the stereo outs. this will help the sound more than fancy caps ever could.

 

[GeorgeinFlorida]

Hey Marc:
Fortunately I have the QSM module and not the QMM with the awful sounding VCAs. I do however have the single "Quad" fader which is the crazy Auditronics pulley and pinion mechanism driving a four-ganged rotary pot. I hope to replace that and the mono fader with five individual P&G faders at some later date.

Meanwhile, I did a search on Newark for low esr 470uf caps and found this:

[="http://www.newark.com/20C2914/passives/product.us0?sku=VISHAY-SPRAGUE-94SP477X0010FBP&_requestid=60580"]Vishay Sprague --
* Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor
* Capacitor Type:Low ESR
* Voltage Rating:10VDC
* Capacitor Dielectric Material:Aluminum Organic
* Operating Temperature Range:-55 C to +105 C
* Capacitance:470uF
* Capacitance Tolerance:+/- 20% RoHS Compliant: Yes

[/] This item is non-stocked, needs 100+ days lead time, ships from the UK and is $2.50 a pop PLUS a $15 special order fee. I don't think so. :/

I've also tried Mouser with NO results for that criteria.

Any other source ideas?

By the way, which of these five caps in question do you think might work better with bi-polar replacements?

 

[GeorgeinFlorida]

Okay, there is this one:

[="http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=38K2237"]MULTICOMP — Aluminum Electrolytic
* CAPACITOR, 105C 470UF 35V CAPACITOR, 105C 470UF 35V
* CAPACITANCE:470UF
* VOLTAGE RATING, DC:35V
* CAPACITOR DIELECTRIC TYPE:ALUMINIUM ELECTROLYTIC
* SERIES:ECA2
* TEMP, OP. MAX:105(DEGREE C)
* TEMP, OP. MIN:-40(DEGREE C)
* TOLERANCE, :20%
* RoHS Compliant: Yes[/]

 

[catastrophic]

also try searching "low impedance"

nichicon PW series are good and cheap. but they're radial only as far as i know. will work fine but you'll need yo cover the leads with some shrink to avoid shorting any traces on the board. thats why i used the vishay BCs in mine, they're axial and sound good.

if you want to get really crazy, nichicon FG or KZ series are "audio grade" caps.

but the 501 is a rocknroll sounding board, and fancy caps aren't going to change that. you can use all the fancy caps you want, but with 5534s and steel core transformers you'll never hear how they're not coloring your audio.

people made great sounding records before there were great sounding caps. just pick one and put them in there.

kevin

 

[Kev]

yep

the PW series would fine for a start

and hey kevin liked the sound of the axial vishay BCs

so don't get too hung up on this

be careful with the old tracks and start experimenting

 

[GeorgeinFlorida]

Okay, assortment of coupling caps on order, chips are here along with 150pf caps and 100ohm resistors needed for the upgrade to 5534s.

What I need now are some NOS 12 pin Molex connectors and extra female pins to fit them... and a pin removal tool. Also, what are the Molex part numbers for the ones used in the 501? Anyone know?

Anyone have any ideas where I might find some?

 

[modularlife]

hey - sorry - my wife and i went and had a baby!

what's the latest down there in Florida?

i have a question for you guys;

what the heck does the Mon Meters selection do? i feel like the relay that controls this switch must be bad because i hear a very slight click - but nothing changes with my meter status. i'm hoping very much that it allows me to see tape playback level because going to the other room to look at the meters on my 2" machine is a real pain in the arse.

also - what does the 3-way toggle switch (the one below the monitor select switch row) control?

these are the only two switches that still mystify me - i still haven't gotten a manual and these switched don't seem to react to being switched.

good to be back! we had a beautiful baby boy - named REMY! it's a fairly common name where my family comes from.

cheers,
marc

 

[TheBigBeatsInc]

Hey I am looking for 501 IME pres
Please contact if you know where I can find some
Thanks
Paul
Paullivorsi@gmail.com

 

[Kurt Foster]

hey Remy,

i was reading an article in TapeOp the other day about these things. they were saying Stax and Ardent both had consoles assembled with the them.

 

[Timo]

Yes, I know I'm opening a thread that was buried 4 years ago.

Here is why.

"GeorgeinFlorida" was a local musician and had a home recording studio. He passed away in July of 2018.

I just inherited his AudiTronics 501 mixer. It was a 20x16 format. I'm not sure what I have yet. I have the frame (Could they make that thing any heavier? I didn't even know they made particleboard back then?!?!) George's late wife is moving and she put the mixer up for sale, so I contacted her. Saturday, I went and picked up the mixer, SIX power supplies, and a huge blue tub/tote with all the channel strips pulled and wrapped in bubble-wrap, and hopefully, a wiring harness. I haven't even gone out to look and see exactly what is in the blue tote - I may not even have all the channels. I'm not sure what I have other than the frame and the other stuff. I don't know if any of the power supplies work or anything.
I'm almost afraid to look because if there's no wiring harness in it, I might be completely out of luck. Judy said that he did have the mixer working at one point, but I don;t know if he was using any of these power supplies. He had the original Power Supply for it, but some genius stole the power supply out of his storage unit.... I don't know why they stole THAT of all things, it was just a big square sheet metal box with the wiring connectors for the mixer, a switch and an on/off light. I know this mixer very well, from the 70's until 1989 when it was sold, this was the mixing board in our local community college's recording studio, where I first trained on it in 1986. A few friends and I took the course every semester because we got free time in a 16-track studio that had a 2" 16-track Ampex machine, old school EV Event powered monitors, one of the early Eventide harmonizers, an EMT plate reverb, some Kepex gates, and a pair of LA-whatever model mono compressors (tube, maybe?)
No matter how you slice it, it gave us access to what was most likely the best stocked studio in Jacksonville, FL at the time. Neuman, Sennheiser, and EV mic's. and a room with over 1' thick concrete walls. Just what a young heavy metal band needed.
So, obviously, I have a love for this mixer. when she put it up for sale, I was thinking,"I will sell everything I have to to get that mixer." Luckily, I didn't have to do that.
So, tomorrow, I'm going to open up the storage tote and see what I actually have.


Timo

 

[Timo]

I'm ordering a manual for the mixer.
$100.

Yikes!! Oh well.

As the saying goes "Buy Once, Cry Once".

Let me sharpen up my soldering skills.
I figured if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right.

 

[cyrano]

I don't know much about Auditronics, as they are rare this side of the pond. But it's a mixer worth saving, at least in my crooked mind...

 

[Timo]

This is going to be fun.

There is no wiring harness, and I think I'm going to have to replace all of the faders. Lovely.
I can't even see where a power supply connects to it.

Well, I'm going to eliminate the particleboard frame. I have a friend who works for a high end wood-fabrication company making custom things - everything from custom China cabinets to guitars. You name it, they will build it (or rather he will build it and they probably charge 4 times what he does.) Put I'm going to talk to him about rebuilding the frame out of either 3/4" Marine-grade plywood, or 3/4" Baltic Birch. From the dimension of it - 42" x 61" - I think I would actually only need 1 sheet of plywood. Since I am going to be neck deep in this, and it looks like the frame will hold up to 26 input modules, I'm going to nose around and see how hard it is to build a led meter bridge rather than all those old school VU meters. So I can just make the back higher, and put in metal plates with the LED meter bridge installed.
This is definitely going to take a while to tinker with. Who knows, if I actually wind up doing that, rather than creating a regular wiring harness, I may also install 24-pin T/DIF connectors and have the inputs so I can buy 8-channel TDIF snakes.
I'm going to be recording on a PC, but I would LOVE to have a 2" machine, and I was looking at some Studer's last night, but @ roughly $12K for a used one, that is out of my price-range any time soon.

I've also consider scrapping the mixer frame, and rack-mounting everything.

I have a Mixed Logic M24 24-channel Control Surface that has moving faders. (I'm attaching a picture of it) and I could just patch each of the channels in-line via a MOTU 24IO interface.
I purchased this a few years ago from Studio C in Nashville, so I could use this instead of investing in rebuilding the Auditronics.
We'll see. I'm going to have to crunch some numbers, since I am doing this out of pocket.
(And the reason it was dusty was the unit was purchased by Studio C and virtually never used - everyone just chose to mix in the box, so it sat there for along time. That image is in Studio C, not my home studio. )

My goal is to just use the PC in place of a 2" 24-track machine. I want to use all the old school goodies. I'm going to build a pair of real plate reverb units. and I have a few decent Roland Digital delays as well as a Sound Workshop Spring reverb that I've had for 20+ years. I'm probably going to use the Noise Gates & Compression inside the PC, but I'd like to use some real outboard gear and actually mix outside of the box to some degree by using the channel strips.
For me, the lack of hiss makes working in digital nice, but I still like the old school toys.

I'm not that familiar with a summing mixer, but I'm guessing that is sort of what this idea is.

 

[Timo]

I don't know much about Auditronics, as they are rare this side of the pond. But it's a mixer worth saving, at least in my crooked mind...

They are cool mixers. I loved the EQ on it. It gave us a great drum sound when we were using it.

 

[Boswell]

My goal is to just use the PC in place of a 2" 24-track machine. I want to use all the old school goodies.

Ever thought of an Alesis HD24XR instead of a 24-track tape machine? Long since discontinued, but pretty easy to find on Ebay for well under $1000.

 

[Timo]

No, my reason for being interested in the 2" machine is to have an Analog set up to go along with the Digital. Plus, if I were going with something like that, I would steer clear of Alesis. I never cared for the brand. I bought the MIDIverb II when it was released back in the mid 80's, and I was burning through one power supply a month, and at $30 per power supply - that cost me $120 for Power Supplies, so when I got the last one, I took it to the store and traded it in at major loss, and never touched another piece of Alesis gear again. I would either look at the Tascam X-48, or the Fostex 16-track machine, or a RADAR set up. I already have 24-tracks of Tascam DA-38's with the remote.(Hi-8mm tape machines.)