Mic pre's in MBox -can they be upgraded/improved

[TimS]

Hi All,
I'm not really a DIY guy although I do make my own stuff but mainly cables and some basic wiring looms, etc.
Is there any way I can upgrade or replace the mic pre's in the unit for something a little better.
This a great unit for recording ideas and stuff on the fly or while away.. It uses Focusrite mic pre's (from memory)..
Is this a viable venture or not??
TimS..

[rob]

Tim
we are currently working on our transformer box, which uses a technique along the lines of my article in AT about transformers. It will be an in-line unit that you put between the mic and mic pre. So far 3 people have tried prototypes who have digi boxes, mackies etc. All of them have given it the thumbs up and want to buy the finished product when we have nutted out some aspects of it's assembly. We are aiming to make this less than $100. It won't take the back of your head off with the difference but it does give some character and smoothness to otherwise good but boring mic-pres.

Stay tuned!

Rob

[Mark Bassett]

I believe only the original Mbox has Focusrite pre's, not the latter versions.

[TimS]

I believe only the original Mbox has Focusrite pre's, not the latter versions.

Mark, I have an original one.. hence the Q about it..

Rob, very interested in this also.. keep me in the loop.
Thanks for the replies.
TimS..

[davemc]

Rob, Would be interesting to see if anything could be done internally updating stuff with Mbox's. Like the black lion mods for the 002. They are a great little box although I use outboard pres with mine. Little box and rack mount pre he he

If you only need one mic pre. A mbox and a Greai River NV1 would be a cool mobile setup

[smash]

The MBox takes it's power from the USB Bus - and thus has a total of 500 milliamps of power available to it.

In an MBox this 500 milliamps is divided amongst the Pre Amps ( X2 ) the head phone amp, plus all the electronics that actually drive the unit itself.

This is a tiny amount of power to drive anything !!!

The only hope for upgrading the Pre's would either to some sort of external power to drive some new upgraded internal Pre's which would mean that the unit would no longer be usable remotly with a laptop running on batteries, or alternatively...

to somehow wire a hardware bypass that completely bypasses the pre's ( even in Line mode they are pretty horrible) and basically wire straight into the input of the A/D. provided that you were happy to find someone to hack the guts out of it, and to lose the pre-amps totally, you could actually get some pretty cool stuff done.

[Sammas]

Chances are its all surface mount stuff too which will be a PITA to mod.

Hey Rob, which issue of AT is your article in? I'm keen to check it out? Ever thought of a similar idea for line level stuff? I'm sure a lot of synths and other unbalanced line gear could benefit from such a product...

[rob]

Sammas, Issue 55.
I spend a fair bit of my week, tweaking and modifying gear but i'd be really reluctant to take on an Mbox. Its like trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. The problem with these type of units is, yes its all surface mount parts which makes it hard enough to even repair it let alone modify it. It is all designed for low current draw which puts some distinct limits on the type of components and circuit topologies that can be used. I'd think that your money would be best spent on a couple of channels of outboard mic-pre.

Rob

[TimS]

Sammas, Issue 55.
I spend a fair bit of my week, tweaking and modifying gear but i'd be really reluctant to take on an Mbox. Its like trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. The problem with these type of units is, yes its all surface mount parts which makes it hard enough to even repair it let alone modify it. It is all designed for low current draw which puts some distinct limits on the type of components and circuit topologies that can be used. I'd think that your money would be best spent on a couple of channels of outboard mic-pre.

Rob

Rob, you are so correct (outboard pre's) - its something that I will be doing, however, I was mainly interested to see if the MBox mod was a viable option.
I'm pretty happy mith my MBox - its serves its purpose well..

Tax chq coming soon - so then might a set of pre's...
TimS..

[toddd]

been thinking about this topic a bit lately, especially with how much it costs to send a 002 or motu interface to the states and back. would broadcast/proharmonic or jlm ever consider doing a similar thing that black lion does? or is it just not worth the effort?

i'd like to get the pre's in my traveller a lot nicer (or completely replace them with line drivers, although that kind of defeats the purpose of 'travelling' with it..) and also replace the lines drivers with something better (ps. i never use the onboard pres of a motu or 002)...

cheers, todd.

[rob]

Broadcast or Pro Harmonic would be happy to look at installing a Black Lion mod kit

we have done one of their dBx compressor mods before.

The thing that makes it do-able from our end if for you to source the kit and then get the whole lot to us.

Rob

[TimS]

Getting BLA to send the kit might be a different story tho!!
I'm sure they do all the mods in-house themselves..
TimS..

[toddd]

i think they used to send the kits out to you, but too many people were destroying the devices they were trying to put them into, so they stopped..

[rob]

ok team...come and get 'em
we have the first batch of "translators" ready to go

see http://www.broadcastproaudio.com/new.htm down the bottom of the page

Rob

[TimS]

ok team...come and get 'em
we have the first batch of "translators" ready to go

see http://www.broadcastproaudio.com/new.htm down the bottom of the page

Rob

Nice one Rob..
Looking good..
TimS..

[mfdu]

i've contacted black lion in the past and they said they don't ship the kits - they only install the kits themselves.

shame. if they've changed their idea f service deliver, then pleasse let me know.

chris
mfdu

rob - the translator looks interesting. two transformers wired back to back?

[rob]

indeed....but it's red and funky

Rob