Turtlerock Forum

My very loved and wonderful Balanced Millennia Media NSEQ-2 is making a irregular
crackling sound from the channel 2 output. Bum. Also that channel has a very noticeable noise floor
hiss where as the good channel has none.

At first i thought it was my new Fred Forssell SMP-2 (stereo mic pre) giving off the sound but i took all things
out of the chain and was left wth the grace feeding the EQ, then back to the Grace 904. I swapped cables and
did all the checks, and it is 100% coming from the output only of channel 2.

It makes no difference if in J-Fet or Tube. it starts out clean(w/ the noise floor sound) then starts the crackle.

Anyone in Sydney recommended to check out my baby..

you're describing classic early run NSEQ-2 behaviour... sounds like a dodgy JFET opamp module. if that's the case, contact millennia for replacements, john la grou is very helpful. BUT you will never get a schematic off them, you (or your tech) will need to get on the phone to a millennia tech, unless you find someone who's fixed one of these before.

alternatively, contact fred and drop in his replacement jfets... supposedly very very good. i can pass on some advice he gave me (which i can't post here), which would save you bothering him (although i'm assuming you're in contact with him already).

speaking of fred, have you done the forssell mods? if not, do. especially the grounding, it was never right on those units, you'll want that looked at.

is yours modded for balanced output? EDIT oh i see it is, that eliminates a couple things.

ross giles looked after mine for me, but i doubt he'd fancy seeing another one (although he did more or less work it out in the end... but the lack of schems was very frustrating).

great sounding EQ, I loved mine very much. but I wouldn't buy another one.

Thanx Wez..

Any info you can PM me will stay with me.

And i will give Ross a call as we spoke only 3 weeks ago

wez wrote:speaking of fred, have you done the forssell mods? if not, do. especially the grounding, it was never right on those units, you'll want that looked at.

Totally agree with Wez here, Dale. Highly recommended (if not relying on the tube circuit, as the mod removes that). Also the unit's musical unmasking ability due to phase shift (especially on band 1) is something I've never heard with anything else.

Thanks Adam,

Sounds a plan.

I spoke to AWAVE and their Tech guy is going to buzz me on monday.

Here is a link to my GS post that i uploaded a sound bite of the problem (w/ no signal passing through)

DaleRoyce wrote:Thanks Adam,

Sounds a plan.

I spoke to AWAVE and their Tech guy is going to buzz me on monday.

Here is a link to my GS post that i uploaded a sound bite of the problem (w/ no signal passing through)

Hi Dale,

I have replacements in stock of both the P & N channel matched dual and single jfets used in Millenia / Forssell jfet opamps - if the problem is in fact that, it may well not be.

If you haven't fixed it yet give me a call on 0415059984. I have spoken to Fred quite a few times over the years -
he's a terrific bloke - so I am sure if there are any insurmountable problems help should be an email away.

cheers

A big thank you to Terry.

I believe he narrowed it down to dry solder in or around the op amp.

Then I changed the 12AU7 tubes and have fallen in love with the tube operation sound of this EQ.

Hard to explain.. easy to hear.

Look.. Now i'm relying on the tube section of my kit..
Maybe i could get another tube rating on my profile