Topic: Pre-Amp's with Meter Readouts? other then the MiniMe and V3..

[Nick in Edinboro]

The UA-5 has many plusses, that go along with that one minus too.

Decent sounding box when stock (with digi-mod), great sounding box when modified for $150!  High resale value, easy to power, etc.

Worth it for now, and in the long run later when you get new mics IMHO.

[dklein]

I could prob make some decent recordings with just a overload light....just interested in making the best tapes possible for the $ I have now......

As mentioned before, the UA-5 light is not an overload.  It's -3 dB. so if you see it flicker on peaks you're good.  You just don't want to see it pegged.

[kgreener]

FWIW, I just taped my first show last weekend (Bomb Squad) using my new warm-mod UA-5, and I must say (IMHO) it came out way better than I ever expected.  I'm shocked at how well this pre/AD works.  I too was concerned about metering, so I took advice from a Craig T post I read (and I know others have said the same thing), and it worked just great.  This was his advice:

"all I do is increase the gain in one channel unil the LED lights up, back off a bit until it stops and repeat for the other channel.  If it gets louder and the LED comes on again for more than a brief flicker, I back both channels down equally.  Seemed to work fine the few times I ran the ua5>PDA (poor meters like the JB3)."

I know the JB3 meters are crappy, but this approach made it easy.  Levels on the JB3 were peaking about where they should have been.  I actually could have gone a little higher, i.e. my LED wasn't blinking at *all* and my levels came out a tad low, but it still sounds sweet.  I've since read from others that an occasional "wink" from the LED is not a bad thing, which I will try next time.

peace,
Keith

[Nick in Edinboro]

I actually could have gone  higher, i.e. my LED wasn't blinking at *all* and my levels came out a tad low, but it still sounds sweet.  I've since read from others that an occasional "wink" from the LED is not a bad thing

I'd replace occasional with fairly regularly.  You can run the UA-5 surprisingly "hot" I've found.  I think a better "measure" of how hot you can go is how sustained the blink is.  The blink should not be sustained for seconds but rather flicker.  If it flickers a lot during loud passages I am still comfortable as long as it's not a "sustained on" looking flash.

Also, with bumping your levels you lower your noise floor and can make "all around" better tapes AFAIK

Just my $000,000.019 on that
Nick (I like to put words in quotes)

[timP]

Making a list of pros/cons..
It will prob be the UA-5 warm mod.....
seems like the right package for my price range...
Don't even know if I'm going to really use my IRIVER as my primary recording device...just using it to learn/experiment...My get a JB3 or that ARCHOS....
Thanks for insight.......

[F.O.Bean]

good luck!!

[thoman8r]

Making a list of pros/cons..
It will prob be the UA-5 warm mod.....
seems like the right package for my price range...
Don't even know if I'm going to really use my IRIVER as my primary recording device...just using it to learn/experiment...My get a JB3 or that ARCHOS....
Thanks for insight.......

If you get the ua-5 you can always play around with your mics and figure out if they're balanced or not.  If not, once you figure out the difference between the two you can always adjust accordingly on the ua-5.

I agree with the others, go with the ua-5.  It's cheap, sounds good even stock, and is "scalable" (i.e. upgradeable - sorry for the comp sci nerd verbage).  Just make sure that if you don't buy a unit with the digital or warm mods already, that you buy it from oade (or you can confirm the person selling it used bought it from oade).  Douge only mods ua-5s that were bought from him, *no exceptions*.

Good luck and enjoy!

[kgreener]

Nick, thanks man, that really helps a lot.  I was wondering about this, i.e. occasional blinks vs. sustained blinks, and you just answered my question.  

This board rocks, I'm amazed at the wealth of information here!

peace,
Keith

[Brian Skalinder]

confirm the person selling it used bought it from oade

If there's any doubt on a used unit, just call the Oades - I believe they track serial #s of all the devices they mod.

[timP]

no prob with the mod.. my cousin is the head of a media department for some serious Arts and Science college in NYC... he's a huge eleronic whiz, and has been answering MANY qesutions of mine via email.
He can do just about anything with audio/video..does crazy media instaltions that are sic....mind blowing...will go into details, but yall might htink its weird stuff..Dancers triggering random recorded sounds..ie the more they dance and where they dance trigger diff sensors that trigger the sound bites, so it's all a free-form cyclical thing...Anyway, he can def do the mod..

[nic]

no prob with the mod.. my cousin is the head of a media department for some serious Arts and Science college in NYC... he's a huge eleronic whiz, and has been answering MANY qesutions of mine via email.
He can do just about anything with audio/video..does crazy media instaltions that are sic....mind blowing...will go into details, but yall might htink its weird stuff..Dancers triggering random recorded sounds..ie the more they dance and where they dance trigger diff sensors that trigger the sound bites, so it's all a free-form cyclical thing...Anyway, he can def do the mod..

warning, if your cousin does the mod it will void the warranty. if you purchase and mod from Oade, the warranty stays valid

[timP]

thanks for that info...def want to keep the warrenty...........

[thoman8r]

thanks for that info...def want to keep the warrenty...........

Yep, plus Doug picks what op-amps and other components he knows will sound good in the *field.*  Not saying your cousin doesn't know his shit but Doug has years and years of experience building pre's and using them in the field.  

To put it bluntly, he's the best.  I wouldn't trust my shit with anyone else.

[timP]

just called down there 500 for the warm mod UA-5...
found a reg UA-5 on the bay for 250...
I trust my cuz, and he would prob hook me up for just cost of parts....I know that people take their DAT machines to him to be fixed...
my cousin has been recording stuff and into heavy electronic for 30 yrs...used to work on an assembly line making  boards for damns and nuclear recactors...

[Chris K]

nuclear-mod ua-5...i like the sound of that!