Topic: Does the stock UA5 Suck........

[steve4134]

It seems everyone i know who tapes or who have taped used a modded whether it be oade or busman ua5. Does the stock ua5 suck that much  ? Im debating on getting mine busman modded but was just wondering what the community thinks. If not I was thinking my rig would develop into  either  mics- ua5 busman mod - jb3, or mics  Niant Little box - ua5 - jb3. Any thoughts or ideas throw them my way.

Steve

Im hoping to either settle on AKG 414 , akg 391 or an MC 930 Stereo-Set for my mics

[bhtoque]

It does not "suck", but the mods lower the noise floor, improve the tone and give you the chance to match the pre to the type of sound you prefer and what works best to match or balance out your mics.

I've only had an Oade mod UA-5, but I had it stock then sent it back. The improvement was definitely worth the cost of the mod.

JAson

[deadheaded]

i'm pretty sure that a basic mod is needed to make the ua-5 have spdif digital out without a computer attached.  then beyond that you can choose your flavor of sound.

[steve4134]

The basic mod was already done.  Sorry i forgot to mention that.

Steve

[page]

I ran the stock one for a couple of months (never got mine modded past that). If you've got the spare cash you'll be happy, but unless I had the cash laying around, I wouldn't drop the coin to run out and get it modded. Would be worth saving for, but not at the expense of tickets to shows.

[SmokinJoe]

No it doesn't suck.  But it can always be better.  I ran the stock one for a while, then bought a modded one, then bought a V3 (and that's probably where I will stay for a long time).  Upgrade fever tends to happen to most of us.

If you are recording loud music out in the middle of a screaming crowd it doesn't tend to make a huge difference.  If you start recording quiet acoustic music, or jazz, in a nice venue such that sometimes it's actually "quiet" at times, that's when you notice it.   At those quiet moments the signal drops down to like -48db or less, the moded box will actually be "quiet", and the recording will be a little more crisp.  On a stock box this is where the hiss will start to show up.

Run what you have for now and get your mics.  Someday when a Busman/Oade mod box comes up in the yard sale for the right price and you have some money, grab the moded box and sell yours.

[rowjimmytour]

The busman 2+ would sound sweet w/ the 930's

[steve4134]

Lol im sure

Steve

[steve4134]

Does busman do a warm mod ?  I only see one mod offered on his site.

Steve

[rowjimmytour]

Does busman do a warm mod ?  I only see one mod offered on his site.

Steve

http://www.busmanaudio.com/mods.html
According to his site he only has the 2+ mod but you might want to ask and see what he says. I know as a fact you would love the mod because I ran my TL's w/ busman 2+ and it sounded so sweet. One cool thing w/ the UA5 and the mod and running 16 bit was I could run right at -0dB and not clip.
Peace

[page]

Does busman do a warm mod ?  I only see one mod offered on his site.

Steve

http://www.busmanaudio.com/mods.html
According to his site he only has the 2+ mod but you might want to ask and see what he says. I know as a fact you would love the mod because I ran my TL's w/ busman 2+ and it sounded so sweet. One cool thing w/ the UA5 and the mod and running 16 bit was I could run right at -0dB and not clip.
Peace

I sat and thought about this and it makes sense, since you aren't dithering to 16bit, but chopping. So at 24bit you might hit 0, but there is some residual noise down in bits 17-24 which gets dropped and lowers your overall signal to under 0 (however so slightly).

Neat factoid.

[SmokinJoe]

I sat and thought about this and it makes sense, since you aren't dithering to 16bit, but chopping. So at 24bit you might hit 0, but there is some residual noise down in bits 17-24 which gets dropped and lowers your overall signal to under 0 (however so slightly).

Neat factoid.

I suspect it's not for the reason you think.  It suspect your logic goes like this:
24 bits of 111111111111111111111111 chopped to 1111111111111111 is still "maxed out" = clipping.
If you convert back to 24bits you have 111111111111111100000000, which is numerically less than all 1's.  My response is "that's true, but it doesn't matter".  Clipping distortion comes from "flat tops" which don't represent the original waveform... whether that flat top happens a max amplitude, or a tiny bit less won't save you, because the problem is that you didn't capture the original waveform accurately.

I've heard it stated "the stock UA-5's don't like to be run hot, and the Busman mod fixes that".  I can't confirm or deny that... that's just what I have heard (although I tend to believe it.)  The way I rationalize that statement is that analog circuits aren't perfectly linear throughout the entire range, and so maybe the stock box gets a little weird run right at max, but the modded boxes tweak the analog section in such a way that the situation improves that particular situation.

[kirk97132]

I run a Busman UA-5 and my experience is that it sounds best by not letting go into clipping.  I don't know if that is what you meant by running it hot.  I do like to run it with peaks about -3 on a calibrated SVU meter. Or basically so that the light never comes on on the UA-5.  I've run it lower and can't say I personally noticed  any difference.  I run it into my LDC and there have been times I have preferred the modded UA-5 to the SD MP-2 I run also.  I have never run or heard a stock UA-5 so I don't know how they compare

[page]

I sat and thought about this and it makes sense

I suspect it's not for the reason you think.  It suspect your logic goes like this:

In my defence (as I look at it now and go "wtf", that makes no sense at all"), that was written before noon, and I don't function very well before noon. 

[SmokinJoe]

In my defence (as I look at it now and go "wtf", that makes no sense at all"), that was written before noon, and I don't function very well before noon. 

I apologize for the wording of my comment... it does sound rather harsh, although I didn't mean it that way.

I agree with Kirkd... I don't like to run near zero either.  But I've seen times when I set my levels conservatively, then wander off to get a drink or something, and the music gets louder.  When I came back the red light is blinking brightly (Oh Crap!).  It's nice if the preamp is a little forgiving and doesn't punish me too badly for my carelessness.  On the other hand, some people are aggressive by nature and want to push it hard, and that's their prerogative.