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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 8, 2015 20:44:02 GMT -6
svart came up today and brought his prototype AD and Randge came over to lend his ears. We recorded a few files through it, the Apollo and the Burl...and let me say - it is VERY impressive. To my ears - and like Randy explained it - it was the most linear across the frequency spectrum. We did three different takes for each instance - I didn't have mults - but they were absolutely close enough to determine what each AD was doing. I'm going to post some files - but not label them. You guys can suss out which is which and I'll post what they are later. I will tell you my thoughts on each: Svart - cleanest...most consistent regardless of dynamic range...compared to the other two, mids seemed most controlled and flat bottom and top Apollo - forward in the upper mids, rolled off on top and somewhat 2 dimensional...but, listening by itself, was not bad in the least. Burl - big bottom, little more sheen on top maybe, a little forward in mids, but much less than the Apollo. I could see myself going with this for ADDA and pairing with the Apollo. I don't want to be hyperbolic, so I'll reserve judgement until after I use the product for a while (no, he didn't leave it with me), but it absolutely does what he set out to do, very, very good transparent, clean conversion. Vocals https%3A//soundcloud.com/johnandkris/sets/svartbox-vocalsReso https%3A//soundcloud.com/johnandkris/sets/svartbox-resoBadly played and recorded Acoustic Guitar  https%3A//soundcloud.com/johnandkris/sets/svartbox-ag
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Post by Randge on Feb 8, 2015 21:00:05 GMT -6
That was also my assessment. I felt the Burl to be too wooly and bottom heavy at such a stage of recording when you should have what you want already dialed in. Too colored for my taste. Svart has a winner on his hands.
R
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 8, 2015 21:12:05 GMT -6
Well, we should say that we all thought the bottom end of the Burl sounded really nice on Randy's dobro, but that could have been added with EQ in the mix...
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Post by matt on Feb 8, 2015 21:16:32 GMT -6
That was also my assessment I felt the Burl to be too wooly and bottom heavy at such a stage of recording when you should have what you want already dialed in. Too colored for my taste. Svart has a winner on his hands. R Oh man. Burl unease has been creeping into my world out here in the West. Wooly, hmm. Add to this the weird problem I'm having: my B2 DA is losing op-amps, one in December and now the other one last week. Will at Burl has taken care of me but it sucks to have my monitoring DA go down, and it's not trivial to wire around the thing the way I'm set up. |
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Post by Randge on Feb 8, 2015 21:28:24 GMT -6
Comparatively speaking it was bottom heavy. That said, they are three very viable designs and I could make a record with any one of them happily. I just prefer my converter to be clean and not imparting any stamp on the sound to that degree.
R
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 8, 2015 21:41:08 GMT -6
I have experience with the midrange in the Apollo building up and causing issues...to me, it just doesn't sound as good. I remember when I first got the Burl, I was surprised that it seemed to add a sheen on top. I just kinda thought it was gonna sound fat and rolled off a little...but it doesn't. When people say it sounds like "tape," I guess I was thinking of 15ips...but this shit be 30ips Anyway - I have had a TON of success with the Burl - I just mean, I have recorded a lot of stuff that I thought turned out really great. It's kind've one of those things that "just works." I sold it once because I didn't think I needed it. I then immediately re-bought it. So it would take something special for me to drop it again. I'll buy one of these and maybe commit to it for several projects. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2015 22:12:09 GMT -6
I have experience with the midrange in the Apollo building up and causing issues...to me, it just doesn't sound as good. I remember when I first got the Burl, I was surprised that it seemed to add a sheen on top. I just kinda thought it was gonna sound fat and rolled off a little...but it doesn't. When people say it sounds like "tape," I guess I was thinking of 15ips...but this shit be 30ips Anyway - I have had a TON of success with the Burl - I just mean, I have recorded a lot of stuff that I thought turned out really great. It's kind've one of those things that "just works." I sold it once because I didn't think I needed it. I then immediately re-bought it. So it would take something special for me to drop it again. I'll buy one of these and maybe commit to it for several projects. Thanks for that, I just bought an Apollo  I'd be interested in checking one out though, might be cool as a DAC. |
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 8, 2015 22:26:11 GMT -6
I thought Svarts box sounded really good as well, IMO it kept things very neutral and realistic, it didn't really impart anything, from what I could hear.
I didn't get to hang long, but from what I heard I was very impressed by how neutral it was, kind of like it just did it's job and didn't get in the way. The other two added something, the Apollo the midrange and the Burl added some 200hz it sounded like. All were great, just Svarts was the one I kept picking.
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 8, 2015 22:39:02 GMT -6
Yeah - I'm glad it sounded good...it would've been kind've awkward if it had sucked lol...
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Post by tonycamphd on Feb 8, 2015 22:50:31 GMT -6
cool! to me the job of a monitoring DA is to give you an accurate representation so your mix translates anywhere, sounds like the Svartacus is a winner in that regard, congrats Chris!
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Post by formatcyes on Feb 8, 2015 23:18:34 GMT -6
Fantastic news. All we need to do is stop distracting svart so he can get on with building mine |
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 8, 2015 23:45:38 GMT -6
this sounds like the design spec was well achieved on the AD side curious about DA now !
I sold my burl and dbox and have apollo and had 2192, so what you describe is exactly what i was hoping for: more linear than apollo probably more detail and resolution but you didn't say ? So great for money tracks.
The DA i hope will be the same and can then use spdif to print track in session and can monitor off this as well.
My goal was to replace the burl and dbox.
apollo expanded and being able to use a twin as monitor and master controller ( multiple monitors) and have a mobile interface is sounding very doable thx to the svatecus rex !
Thx guys ! thx Chris ! Good news !
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Post by cowboycoalminer on Feb 9, 2015 8:16:24 GMT -6
Wheres the files? Did I miss them in the thread?
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 9, 2015 10:01:50 GMT -6
don't think there are any yet just comments from you guys in the know ?
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 9, 2015 11:24:06 GMT -6
No. Sorry. Just being lazy. I'll get them up in a sec
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Post by Martin John Butler on Feb 9, 2015 11:34:01 GMT -6
I wonder how it compares to the BLA Sparrow? I've heard such good things about the BLA
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Post by tonycamphd on Feb 9, 2015 11:41:20 GMT -6
my bro has a white sparrow DA, it is killer sounding, sounds like svarts thing is off to a good start, JK, Randy and Jerome all have a lot of experience, it is reassuring to hear them rave imo.
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Post by tonycamphd on Feb 9, 2015 11:45:31 GMT -6
curious, did you guys listen to the one with coupling caps or without?
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Post by svart on Feb 9, 2015 15:23:58 GMT -6
curious, did you guys listen to the one with coupling caps or without? I'll let John post the tracks, let everyone listen and choose their favorite and then I'll tell all about the unit. |
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Post by tonycamphd on Feb 9, 2015 15:36:47 GMT -6
curious, did you guys listen to the one with coupling caps or without? I'll let John post the tracks, let everyone listen and choose their favorite and then I'll tell all about the unit. you had units with and without? |
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 9, 2015 15:45:37 GMT -6
sounds like; one thing about sparrow certainly a great unit but isn't it at least 40% more than svart's and it is just AD so very different price points, not suggesting sparrow is over priced or anything as it also have the micro clock, even b stock sparrows are typically over a a grand ?
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 9, 2015 16:29:11 GMT -6
No - these had the caps
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 9, 2015 16:36:11 GMT -6
Not really sure if you can really get much from this...but here it is anyway.
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 9, 2015 16:52:35 GMT -6
Oh...files in the first post.
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Post by tonycamphd on Feb 9, 2015 17:08:18 GMT -6
sounds like; one thing about sparrow certainly a great unit but isn't it at least 40% more than svart's and it is just AD so very different price points, not suggesting sparrow is over priced or anything as it also have the micro clock, even b stock sparrows are typically over a a grand ? yes, those are very expensive, both AD and DA, very good sounding, but i'm not sure whats in them beyond the xb/fm clocks. |
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