Altec 1628A mixers: Dogs or Diamonds?

Analok · 7th February 2012

I have opportunity to buy an Altec 1628A mixer, but because I've never used any Altec gear before I have no idea how worthwhile this piece of kit will be for me. I currently don't have a mixer larger than two balanced inputs, so it could provide more expansion, but is it clean enough in a digital environment? The thing that has me gassed for it is that it's fully populated with 8 1588C preamps/transformers. The asking price is 'better than average', especially in it's populated state. But not much is said about it here in GS, or the entire web for that matter, so I don't know if it's a complete pig or a best kept secret of sorts.

Will this unit serve me well in my budget driven set up or will it dissapoint as a clean, low self noised mixer/pre? I'd like to improve on it if possible with better components but I don't even know if that's feasible (semiconductors have come a long way since it's conception, right??). Please help me justify the purchase as more than a gas driven slutty gotta have impulse buy. All comments/suggestions welcome.

TIA, Slutz

Analok · 11th February 2012

Ah, well...I'm gonna scoff it anyway. Found quite a lot of postings by RodC over at TapeOp about Altecs & he's pretty stoked about it & the mods he's done, so what the hey! Can never have enough chocolate, right?

Cheers!

mjrippe · 11th February 2012

The solid state Altec gear is generally pretty noisy. I believe that fresh caps and better transistors will go a long way towards lowering the noise floor. Possibly better PSU regulation would help too. I don't know if all that work will pay off vs buying a better product to begin with, but you will learn a lot and that's priceless ;-)

Analok · 23rd February 2012

Thanks, mjrppe. As it turns out I really haven't had much complaint about it's performance 'as-is': it's got plenty of that typical '70s hiss riding within it's signal. Takes quite a bit of tweaking to find it's 'sweet spot' - just barely controlable. I did find however the phantom power circuit(s) injecting too much hum/noise when I hooked up a condenser mic - LDC, SDC, different brands, different channels...it didn't matter. So I tried to add a little 'filtering' by means of a small resistor across the 1588's appropriate pins (the factory has removeable jumpers here). This cleaned the signal up big time without sacrificing gain. Odd that the factory didn't do something on these lines, but perhaps that's why they designed in a replaceable jumper instead of just providing a solid pcb trace from pin to pin?? I was also going to piggyback a small capacitor on the resistor but it doesn't seem to need it ATM. Outside of that it's serving me well. Certainly not top shelf gear or to die for by any means, just kinda fun to toy around with. Ah, well...slutz will be slutz

7th February 2012	#1
Analok Gear maniac Joined: Jan 2011 Posts: 215 Thread Starter 3 Reviews written	Altec 1628A mixers: Dogs or Diamonds? I have opportunity to buy an Altec 1628A mixer, but because I've never used any Altec gear before I have no idea how worthwhile this piece of kit will be for me. I currently don't have a mixer larger than two balanced inputs, so it could provide more expansion, but is it clean enough in a digital environment? The thing that has me gassed for it is that it's fully populated with 8 1588C preamps/transformers. The asking price is 'better than average', especially in it's populated state. But not much is said about it here in GS, or the entire web for that matter, so I don't know if it's a complete pig or a best kept secret of sorts. Will this unit serve me well in my budget driven set up or will it dissapoint as a clean, low self noised mixer/pre? I'd like to improve on it if possible with better components but I don't even know if that's feasible (semiconductors have come a long way since it's conception, right??). Please help me justify the purchase as more than a gas driven slutty gotta have impulse buy. All comments/suggestions welcome. TIA, Slutz

11th February 2012	#2
Analok Gear maniac Joined: Jan 2011 Posts: 215 Thread Starter 3 Reviews written	Hmmm...nobody wants to comment Ah, well...I'm gonna scoff it anyway. Found quite a lot of postings by RodC over at TapeOp about Altecs & he's pretty stoked about it & the mods he's done, so what the hey! Can never have enough chocolate, right? Cheers!

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11th February 2012	#3
mjrippe Gear addict Joined: Mar 2010 Posts: 395	The solid state Altec gear is generally pretty noisy. I believe that fresh caps and better transistors will go a long way towards lowering the noise floor. Possibly better PSU regulation would help too. I don't know if all that work will pay off vs buying a better product to begin with, but you will learn a lot and that's priceless ;-)

23rd February 2012	#4
Analok Gear maniac Joined: Jan 2011 Posts: 215 Thread Starter 3 Reviews written	Thanks, mjrppe. As it turns out I really haven't had much complaint about it's performance 'as-is': it's got plenty of that typical '70s hiss riding within it's signal. Takes quite a bit of tweaking to find it's 'sweet spot' - just barely controlable. I did find however the phantom power circuit(s) injecting too much hum/noise when I hooked up a condenser mic - LDC, SDC, different brands, different channels...it didn't matter. So I tried to add a little 'filtering' by means of a small resistor across the 1588's appropriate pins (the factory has removeable jumpers here). This cleaned the signal up big time without sacrificing gain. Odd that the factory didn't do something on these lines, but perhaps that's why they designed in a replaceable jumper instead of just providing a solid pcb trace from pin to pin?? I was also going to piggyback a small capacitor on the resistor but it doesn't seem to need it ATM. Outside of that it's serving me well. Certainly not top shelf gear or to die for by any means, just kinda fun to toy around with. Ah, well...slutz will be slutz