Topic: UA-5 tonal quality (stock)

[Karl]

I've read more than my share's worth about the UA-5.  I own a digi-mod UA-5, and I love it.  But one thing I haven't found anybody mention--what tonal coloring (or lack of) would you consider a stock/digi-mod UA-5 to have?  This is important for A) curiosity's sake, and B) when I upgrade to a T/P/W-Mod UA-5, then I will want to know where I'm coming from, so I can make the right decision.

Thanks!

[C.Clark]

i used a stock ua-5 to do soundboard matrix's for a band i ran sound for.  i found the box to be
not very colored whatsoever, pretty flat.  it sounded pretty dry to my ears, i guess you could say
that i thought it didnt sound very good witht he mics i run, at4051a.  they're pretty bright mics
and the ua-5 seemed to dull them abit, no color, just a dry sound, i'd would recommend an upgrade
to the a W/P/T mod in the future if you really want it to live up to its potention, .02.
-chris

[pfife]

Paging Ed....

[SuperDave]

I'm in agreement here, from what I've recorded with the stock Ua-5, I find it very flat with almost no coloring at all.  It's not gonna make shitty rooms or situations sound good.  Being a mic and placement junkie, it's exactly what I'm looking for.  I'm not gonna get a mod done to it for the simple reason that if I wanted it to color the sound, I'd just spend the extra couple hundred bucks and buy a used V3 or Mini-me depending on which sound I'm looking for.  Granted, I digi-modded the ua-5 myself so their's no possibility of getting the other mods done.       

[heath]

I'm in agreement here, from what I've recorded with the stock Ua-5, I find it very flat with almost no coloring at all.  It's not gonna make shitty rooms or situations sound good.  Being a mic and placement junkie, it's exactly what I'm looking for.  I'm not gonna get a mod done to it for the simple reason that if I wanted it to color the sound, I'd just spend the extra couple hundred bucks and buy a used V3 or Mini-me depending on which sound I'm looking for.  Granted, I digi-modded the ua-5 myself so their's no possibility of getting the other mods done.       

dave, I'm curious what sound you consider the v3 to have.  I find it to be pretty transparent.  Interesting.

H

[nic]

I'm curious what sound you consider the v3 to have.  I find it to be pretty transparent.  Interesting.

H

I find it *almost* brittle sounding, especially in the high-end

[SuperDave]

I'm curious what sound you consider the v3 to have.  I find it to be pretty transparent.  Interesting.

H

I find it *almost* brittle sounding, especially in the high-end

I'm not gonna go so far as to call it brittle, because I think that brittle is a disparaging term.  But your right, their is a very smooth peak in the very very high end that I pick up on whenever I hear a V3 source(granted, some mics will react to it more than others), I also notice an almost slight compression and smoothness to certain lower end warm tones.  Compression is a bad term to use for what I'm talking about, but it's almost a tube-like warmth.  Hard to describe......  You gotta understand, I really like what a V3 does in combo with a good mic.  Great, great preamp.   

And as far as the discussion about the Transparent mod.  I find the stock UA-5 to already be very transparent(I think I mentioned it in my last post), I have noticed that it's less noisy with any of the mods(but I think the chip replacement and better parts would definitely do that).  I just don't know if it's worth it, considering how much it would cost with all the mods.  I'd probably invest in something else.

Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not knocking the UA-5 or the T-mod, I just thought that in terms of what I'm looking for vs. price, I'm happy, so I won't mod.  I've heard recordings through about a million sources, and with the stock Ua-5(Digi-modded) and a decent set of mics, I'm finally hearing things the way that I remember them, which is way more valuable to me than if I get a good a good sounding tape from a shitty sounding room.  I guess it depends on what you're going for.  I'm a soundman, so alot of times I use my tapes as a reference to how I did working the boards that night.  Something that colors won't give me true representation of what I did.

I hope this answers your questions              

[SuperDave]

I hope this answers your questions              

You should look into the mods Dave, they really do make the UA5 comparable to the v3, at half the price, imo.  If you like the v3 sound, and like doing matrixes, then it's the way to go. It is $350 more for the mods though if you are looking at it from the perspective of buying an unmodded UA5 for ~$175, & digi-modding it yourself.
In the end though it's what we can afford, of course I'd like a v3, but I don't have that kind of money to invest in a pre right now.

Yeah, me being the solder and DIY freak that I am, bought the stock UA-5 on ebay.  Personally, I think the A2D converters in it alone are worth the $175 I've spent on it.

Hey, I just noticed your name....  I'm still hurting from the news about Hunter on Sunday.

+t for the great discussion