Topic: thoughts on new oade ua-5 mods?

[jpschust]

I've found Guster to be real hit or miss. some shows rock some just suck... when they rock though, man its a fantastic show.

[andrewg]

can't be of much help from a comparison standpoint, but here's a short sample from a mason jennings show last week with the warm mod.    

http://home.nc.rr.com/gresko/m300.w-modua5.sample.mp3

source was m300's>wmod ua-5>m1.  XY from about 15 feet back, GoRoom4, Carrboro, NC

andrew gresko
gresko@nc.rr.com

[Brian Skalinder]

can't be of much help from a comparison standpoint, but here's a short sample from a mason jennings show last week with the warm mod.

Nice sample, Andrew!  I'm gonna have to tell my brother about the new UA-5 mods.  He's using my old coax-modded UA-5 and I'm sure will be interested in the additional pre mod.  Thanks for the sample...

[ducati]

Nice!  I just picked up M300 > wmod UA5, too, that makes me VERY excited for the next few shows

I taped a wedding ceremony and reception this weekend for some friends, and they turned out fantastic considering the acoustic properties of each venue and the spots I had to tape from...  I think the M300's and the wmod UA5 are going to work very well together...

[greenone]

Hey guys - caught Guster's tour opener last night in Binghamton and they've got a new sound engineer. His name's Gordon and he's REALLY cool and friendly. He suggested a spot for me to set up that was a little closer to the sweet spot and checked in on me during the night to make sure things were going ok. Even though it was in a gym, it sounded like a layer of gunk had been wiped off their sound - very clear and up-front. Got some new twists on old songs including Cake's "Jolene" in the middle of Demons...and for the first time in a while Ryan's voice didn't sound like shit. A decent show though I was hoping for more new material...

Unfortunately, my KM201's weren't in yet, so I had to run my old AT831's. The bank screwed up my wire transfer so Moscow didn't get my money until last week.   Oh well...they'll be waiting for me when I get back from vaca in Florida. Spring training, baby...

--Dave

[DaryanLenz]

Hey dave, just curious...how did you prder mics from Russia directly?  I was under the impression that they had to be purchased here in the states!  And if you don't mind me asking, and it is clearly OK if you do, how much did they cost you, or better yet, how much cheaper than the states?

Daryan

[ducati]

Dave,

Saw Guster at Bogart's last night...  You're right, it sounds like a layer of fog has been lifted from Guster's sound...  The new sound guy did a fantastic job, IMO..!

Taped from the floor...  Oops forgot the duct tape.  Except for a few bumps that the shockmounts seem to have shrugged off, and one drunk guy who was a real jerk, it worked out very well  

Back to the subject of the topic, so far in headphone monitoring I can say the Oade wmod unit is pretty fantastic.  Nice depth!  I can't wait to track the show out tonight and have a listen on "the big rig."  I'll post more thoughts on it tomorrow..

[save]

let me know if u want to set up a trade for that guster show when u get it converted.  I am pretty sure i'm gonna go w/ a warm mod ua-5, but i'd like to hear a few more recordings before i make up my mind.

-Justin

[ducati]

I've got it tracked and uploading to archive.org as we speak.  If you'd like me to FTP it to you before it goes "live" there let me know.  

[save]

right on...i forgot that guster was on the archive.org.  i'll just grab it off of their.  Over all how do you like the ua-5 so far?  How does it compare to your other pre's or a/d's you've used?  Anything u don't like about it?

Thanks,
Justin

[ducati]

Cool.  Look for it in the next few days...  I had some problems u/l it last night, but it should finish out soon.

The only other pre/ad I've owned is the Zefiro Inbox (Denecke AD-20).  I really liked the Inbox, it was a bit thin sounding, but the AD section was fantastic, IMO.  I have only used the UA5 twice so far, but I can say that it is certainly a more convienient unit...  Bigger knobs!  LOL.  Sound-wise I haven't yet formed an opinion of it's "sound" but preliminarily I feel it has better soundstaging and depth than the zefiro, as well as being more full (and warm, could be the wmod).  I like it so far.

Let me know what you think it when you listen to the Guster show!

[DaryanLenz]

Just to comment on the a/d portion of the ua-5, it sounds a whole lot like the da-p1 a/d to my ears, and Doug Oade agreed.  Just a refrence point for you.

Daryan

[ducati]

The Guster show is up on archive.org, d/l at will

http://archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?id=4161

I see there's a AKG CK61 copy, not sure where the heck that guy was..    Can't wait to hear it!

[ducati]

I've listened to my last two recordings with the UA5 a bunch of times, and thought I'd offer up a few thoughts vs. generalities..  I am preliminarily very impressed with the wmod UA5...  It does, indeed, have a slight "warm" coloration to the sound.  I wouldn't go so far as to call it "tubey," but it's certainly on the warm side of solid state.

If you guys are familiar with Steve McCormack's audio gear, you know the sound of the UA5.  I purchased both a McCormack RLD-1 preamp and DNA-125 amp to replace my tube integrated awhile back...  And the reason I picked McCormack after home auditioning WAY too many pieces of gear was it gave me the soundstaging depth and timbral beauty of the tubes, with the slam, detail, and top end extension of the solid state pieces.  Pretty much took the good of both (in my price range), while discarding much of the bad.

My preliminary judgement of the UA5 is along similar lines.  It's warm, yes, but as I said on the solid state side of warm...  It's not fuzzy, huggy, tubey.  Bass is taut and well controlled when it's presented with taut and well controlled bass  Mids show great beauty, and highs are sweet and plenty extended.  

Well, I'm pretty happy with this purchase so far, it seems like a steal for $500

I'll have lots more to analyze in the weeks coming, more to post later...

[JasonGreen]

I must be slow, but what's the difference between a UA-5 and a mod UA-5?