Tell me about your 500 series toys/experiences

[marqueemoon]

I really like my 19” stuff I have and plan to keep it, but 500 series seems to be the way to go for future expansion.

Curious to hear others’ experiences and see some cool toys.

I’m not terribly confident in my soldering skills, but I know a tech now who is pretty reasonable and who might be able to help bail me out if I get stuck, so some kit discussion would be fun.

I would also be down for some nerdy power supply/lunchbox chat. From what I can gather so far you get what you pay for with that stuff. I’m leaning towards a used Radial, but I must admit the cheap options are tempting. Obviously not worth it to save a few bucks for something that won’t adequately power modules or worse though.

[marqueemoon]

Bump. The Event EMP-1 I was hoping would be a good stopgap is being returned, so I'm back on my 500 series GAS bullshit. Mainly looking at preamps.

Currently looking at the Hairball Audio and Seventh Circle Audio 500 pres. The idea of DIY is a bit daunting to me, but Hairball is local and offers repair services if you really fuck up.

I would not be mad at pair of 500 series RNCs either. I use them more than my 1176s if I'm being honest, and you get balanced i/o with the 500 version.

[maxbra]

I bought a hairball Lola, but haven’t found the time/confidence to build it up yet. The parts/set looks really nice, and i don”t wanna screw up. But good luck and post your xperience from the build.
Is the RNC similar to a 1176? , i only have an aphex Comp and thats an opto so closer to a la2a. a cheap 1176 would be nice.
my best buy so far is a IGS neox preamp , discontinued now, but was a ”budget” version of a pre/comp. Bought it really cheap and it sounds great! I prefer it to my Ssl six 500 or 1073 clone ( gap).

[marqueemoon]

I bought a hairball Lola, but haven’t found the time/confidence to build it up yet. The parts/set looks really nice, and i don”t wanna screw up. But good luck and post your xperience from the build.
Is the RNC similar to a 1176? , i only have an aphex Comp and thats an opto so closer to a la2a. a cheap 1176 would be nice.
my best buy so far is a IGS neox preamp , discontinued now, but was a ”budget” version of a pre/comp. Bought it really cheap and it sounds great! I prefer it to my Ssl six 500 or 1073 clone ( gap).

Nice. Yeah, I’m a bit intimidated by the Lola. I would probably go for the Silver of the Hairball stuff.

I’m not sure what type of compression the RNC is, but I’m a fan. Mine live on the inserts of my Great River MP-2NV and I use them for pretty much anything I want to track with a little compression. The Great River was my first big investment in recording gear and I have used the hell out of it.

I have a pair of real deal Rev D 1176s I bought 20+ years ago when they were still affordable. I love them on vocals, kick, snare, bass, and for a lot of things when I have time to properly dial them in, but for “plug and play” and not introducing any obvious color the RNCs win.

The IGS Neo looks really cool. It has the perfect “everything you need and nothing you don’t” set of features. I especially like the independent meters for the preamp and compressor sections.

[maxbra]

Cool! I guess 1176 can be a bit to much on everything, but yeah, Therese is a lot of cheap stuff that works fantastic to..


For mixning I (and everybody ) use (plugin) 1176 into La2a for vocals, and love it,
Was looking for a 500 version of la2a that sounds good and is not to expensive, but just saw black lion audio have a two unit rack with 1176+la2a in one for a fair price..

I”ll probably outsource the lola build, last pedals i built did not really work out great, and that was like 5% of the parts of the lola.. but I’m close to finish a Ribbon build, so something at least

[marqueemoon]

Cool! I guess 1176 can be a bit to much on everything, but yeah, Therese is a lot of cheap stuff that works fantastic to..


For mixning I (and everybody ) use (plugin) 1176 into La2a for vocals, and love it,
Was looking for a 500 version of la2a that sounds good and is not to expensive, but just saw black lion audio have a two unit rack with 1176+la2a in one for a fair price..

I”ll probably outsource the lola build, last pedals i built did not really work out great, and that was like 5% of the parts of the lola.. but I’m close to finish a Ribbon build, so something at least

Cool! Yeah, I’m on the fence about building. The one kit pedal I built fired up and worked, but only because I managed to catch a mistake immediately after I made it.

No experience with Black Lion yet, but I’m looking at their Revolution EXP. Ugliest logo and fonts ever, but it seems like the best way for me to expand my setup.

[maxbra]

yes, i don’t get their logo at all, but people say it sounds good.

I have a Audient asp 880 hooked up via adat to my Apollo,
And it have worked out great!
But, if i had to buy today, Revolution would be at top of my list.. both in and out via adat! Perfekt. Asp only have inputs.. second would be the new ssl series, but thats twice the price. .. good luck!

[mcatano]

I'm perhaps missing something obvious in the specs, but for only a few hundred dollars more than the Black Lion (8-in/8-out, 2x ADAT i/o) you could get the Ferrofish which has double the I/O (16-in/16-out, 4x ADAT i/o).

[maxbra]

Not missing anything- ferrofish was under my radar at least.. Awsome

[marqueemoon]

It seems this thread has gotten a bit derailed/mixed with the more i/o thread.

Anyway, I’ve looked at the Ferrofish a little. Where more ins and outs would be nice would be sending things out to outboard gear. I just don’t want to go too wild with that for cost, space, and recall reasons.

Getting back to 500 series chat, the DIYRE OLA5 compressor looks super cool.