Topic: My "new" Aerco MP2

[Jamos]

So a couple months ago I picked up a late-80's era Aerco from another nature recordist...
I contacted Jerry Chamkis about modifying it to funtion with a single gain pot for both channels, and then a balance control.
When I sent it in, he replaced the XLR's, RCA's, 3.5mm jack, power connector, power switch, battery connectors, and case. 
All electronic components were in excellent condition, and I believe this unit uses the original transformers (Reichenbach?).

It came out great, and sounds fantastic.

Here are some pics with it next to a MixPre

[sunjan]

When I sent it in, he replaced the XLR's, RCA's, 3.5mm jack, power connector, power switch, battery connectors, and case. 
All electronic components were in excellent condition, and I believe this unit uses the original transformers (Reichenbach?).

How come the parts had to be replaced? Worn out due to heavy usage? Or general decay by time? Just curious...

[digifish_music]

So a couple months ago I picked up a late-80's era Aerco from another nature recordist...
I contacted Jerry Chamkis about modifying it to funtion with a single gain pot for both channels, and then a balance control.
When I sent it in, he replaced the XLR's, RCA's, 3.5mm jack, power connector, power switch, battery connectors, and case. 
All electronic components were in excellent condition, and I believe this unit uses the original transformers (Reichenbach?).

It came out great, and sounds fantastic.

Here are some pics with it next to a MixPre

Interesting. What advantages does this give you over the MixPre?

digifish

[Jamos]

Well when I got the Aerco, the connectors were certainly still functional...
This particular unit did not have external gain controls when I bought it, so I knew I'd be sending it in for that modification.  Since he had it all apart anyway, I asked him to replace the ~20year-old connectors, and the case which was in rough shape.

The Aerco doesn't really offer any advantages on paper over the mixpre.  I mean, the mixpre has meters, a headphone amp, some filters, and several other features that the Aerco does not.  Where the Aerco comes out on top is in how it sounds, IMO. 

Nothing against the mixpre, but the Aerco preamps have a beautiful quality to them that the mixpre's do not.

So, I like them both, and they're both good for certain situations!

digifish, I've been following the development of your new preamp a little bit, and it's looking very promising! 

[digifish_music]

Well when I got the Aerco, the connectors were certainly still functional...
...

digifish, I've been following the development of your new preamp a little bit, and it's looking very promising! 

Thanks for the follow-up.

That's fivefishdiy, I'm digifish_music, definitely something fishy going on around these forums

[Jamos]

Well when I got the Aerco, the connectors were certainly still functional...
...

digifish, I've been following the development of your new preamp a little bit, and it's looking very promising! 

Thanks for the follow-up.

That's fivefishdiy, I'm digifish_music, definitely something fishy going on around these forums

oh woops!

my mistake.
 

yes that is kind of fishy...i'm sure you can understand my mis-remembering.

[easy jim]

Now that's some gear pr0n

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Old AERCOs don't die, they just get better.   The components in your AERCO rebuild look slightly different than mine (slightly more dense).  Looks like Jerry *may* be using higher grade resistors that are larger.

[spyder9]

I "heart" my Aerco.

[Myco]

I know he uses different transformers now, I believe he told me I got one of the last builds with the Reichenbach's. I think he's using Jensen's now.