« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2006, 04:10:54 PM »
Do you know of anyone that has done that 17db reduction mod on an AD-20?
No... I was just wondering...
Richard aka "poorlyconditioned" had an AD20 but I think he tried to mod de ADC chipset. Don't really know if he tried to mod the gain stage.
I had one of these, but did not do any mods. I determined that:
- there is a discrete transistor stage that gives most of the gain
- following that, there is a middle quality opamp that gives a few dB gain, plus a balanced signal for the ADC
The mid-stage and ADC are fine, but IMO the transistor front end was of poor design/quality. I was hoping for something better. As far as modding goes, I wouldn't really bother. Hey, if you want less than 17dB gain, why don't you just use a battery box and go line in? That makes the most sense to me. Even if you're 10 or 12dB down or something, that is not too bad. You can easily boost that in post. I run line in on MD all the time.
Richard
Logged
Mics: Sennheiser MKE2002 (dummy head), Studio Projects C4, AT825 (unmodded), AT822 franken mic (x2), AT853(hc,c,sc,o), Senn. MKE2, Senn MKE40, Shure MX183/5, CA Cards, homebrew Panasonic and Transsound capsules.
Pre/ADC: Presonus Firepod & Firebox, DMIC20(x2), UA5(poorly-modded, AD8620+AD8512opamps), VX440
Recorders: Edirol R4, R09, IBM X24 laptop, NJB3(x2), HiMD(x2), MD(1).
** This individual has moved to user "illconditioned" **