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Post by notneeson on Oct 20, 2022 13:53:21 GMT -6
Former BLA mod owner here. My advice is, do it if you think it will be your forever(ish) interface and you think it’s worth it. Don’t do it expecting to recoup the mod fees on resale. I think one of the biggest problems is people think there is a Forever interface, yeah funny coming from the guy running a Radar V /24 running on BE. The fact is you , your interface, DAW and plugins will always be at the mercy of the OS and Computer manufacturers. At some point no matter how often you say “ I don’t see a reason to upgrade “ at some point you eat those words. Yeah, that's exactly why I put "ish" on there. "Forever" in digital is probably 5-10 years, although I got a lot more than that out of my HD2 Accel rig. |
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Post by yewtreemagic on Oct 20, 2022 15:36:11 GMT -6
Thanks for starting this thread Martin John Butler - it's good to hear a personal assessment of mods like these, as Black Lion Audio seem to have no demo audio at all on their website demonstrating any of the claimed improvements on any of their mods (I'm not saying they don't exist - just that after claiming "Improving the performance of the analog stage circuits makes a drastic difference for tracking, mixing, and mastering (expect amazing micro-dynamics and space)!" you would expect them to post at least a few before/after audio clips to support this  And thanks too to Seth Berman of RAD Distribution for contributing with useful facts  We used to have sound demos but were always in a constant state of defending these clips. pretty much it became a full time job of defending that the audio difference was big enough that it had to have been faked. We decided it just wasn't worth it in the end and allowed our 15 years of mod experience and more importantly word of mouth of prior mod owners to do it for us. Fair and very believable comment Seth And your word of mouth reputation is certainly enviable! |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Oct 20, 2022 18:43:09 GMT -6
Well, I had no words because my mouth was dropping when I heard the new headphone outs. |
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Post by kcatthedog on Oct 21, 2022 5:00:13 GMT -6
Good, but the original apollo headphone outs were not so comparatively great, my apogee and aurora are much better.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,107 
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Post by ericn on Oct 21, 2022 7:31:42 GMT -6
Never understood a manufacturer cheap if out on the headphone amp. There are some decent in expensive options, plus none of thes guys seam to understand how often that’s what is used to demo gear. Good headphone amp goes along way for the $$. And no offense to RAD / BLA but it’s not like they are adding a fully discrete headphone amp. I know it’s design by the bean counters, but if they realized how many additional units a good headphone amp could quickly move, they would invest the couple of bucks.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Oct 21, 2022 16:31:38 GMT -6
Whatever it is they changed, the headphone improvement was a revelation. It's so much better it defies logic.
I'm used to the sound of good headphones from using my Hi-Fi system.
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Post by kcatthedog on Oct 21, 2022 16:44:45 GMT -6
Well remember the whole circuit and clock have been upgraded, so you hear the cumulative affect in the cans or the main outs : enjoy !
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Post by jcoutu1 on Oct 21, 2022 19:19:35 GMT -6
Never understood a manufacturer cheap if out on the headphone amp. There are some decent in expensive options, plus none of thes guys seam to understand how often that’s what is used to demo gear. Good headphone amp goes along way for the $$. And no offense to RAD / BLA but it’s not like they are adding a fully discrete headphone amp. I know it’s design by the bean counters, but if they realized how many additional units a good headphone amp could quickly move, they would invest the couple of bucks. The Rupert Neve Designs 5088 does. Not. Have. A. Headphone. Amp. 😂🔫 |
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Post by wiz on Oct 21, 2022 19:36:34 GMT -6
I got a custom-made headphone amp years ago and it’s proved to be a very good investment.
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ericn
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Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,107
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Post by ericn on Oct 21, 2022 19:37:20 GMT -6
Never understood a manufacturer cheap if out on the headphone amp. There are some decent in expensive options, plus none of thes guys seam to understand how often that’s what is used to demo gear. Good headphone amp goes along way for the $$. And no offense to RAD / BLA but it’s not like they are adding a fully discrete headphone amp. I know it’s design by the bean counters, but if they realized how many additional units a good headphone amp could quickly move, they would invest the couple of bucks. The Rupert Neve Designs 5088 does. Not. Have. A. Headphone. Amp. 😂🔫 I know, but on many consoles I have considered having the modded so the headphone out was line level and I could use a real headphone amp. So there is that but yeah, it’s really stupid. |
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