ADL 670. The BEAST.... Anybody?

Neve Sucks! · 13th July 2003

Has anybody tried this beast of compressor yet?
Is it worth $18995.......?

e-cue · 14th July 2003

If you think the Farichild is worth the current asking price, then yes... That's just way too much money for me to even consider to spend on one peice of gear. They do sound faithful to the original.

soundguy · 14th July 2003

I havent tried one. but considering what is available on the market today, I think if it were $7K, I would still laugh at the asking price, let alone some $19K. Sure, there is a fetish for everyone, but consider what kind of ABSOLUTE TOP SHELF gear you can aquire for nineteen thousand dollars.

nineteen thousand dollars.

I could solve alot of problems with that kind of money, problems that two channels of any kind of compression, holy grail or otherwise, really only put a dent in.

dave

e-cue · 14th July 2003

I'd rather start building my own Crane Song console personally... How the hell Fairchild's got up at $30,000 is beyond me.

Fletcher · 14th July 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by e-cue
How the hell Fairchild's got up at $30,000 is beyond me.

Hehhahahe... whoh, whah, whee!!! I know how that happened...

... you can actually half blame Jackson Browne for it...

The mostest funnest part of 670's and the like is that the supply of 6386 tubes is dwindling... and when they're gone... the owner of the unit is gonna have to adapt to the whatever 'variable MU (tm)' tubes are available... which means that their venerable 670 ain't gonna be a 670 anymore...

Brad Blackwood · 14th July 2003

And at, what, 18 6386's per 670, that's gonna happen really soon, too...

Besides, those things eat tubes, if you're gonna keep them properly cal'd (most do not).

Fletcher · 15th July 2003

It's 8x 6386's... 4 for left, 4 for right... and yeah... they seem to only have an optimal life span of about 1500-2000 hours... they'll work for 5-10,000 hours but after about 2000 hours they start to fade a bit.

Steve Smith · 15th July 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by Fletcher
Hehhahahe... whoh, whah, whee!!! I know how that happened... ... you can actually half blame Jackson Browne for it...

sounds like a story needs telling?..

**Remoteness** · 15th July 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by Fletcher
Hehhahahe... whoh, whah, whee!!! I know how that happened... ... you can actually half blame Jackson Browne for it...

Yeah,

Wasn't that during the Record Planet Auction?

Didn't Kooster buy it for JB?

The Record Plant, NYC's 670 went for $15,000.00 at that auction, if I'm not mistaken.

2064 · 15th July 2003

Even if I had truckloads of money I wouldnt pay that for a compressor. But then again I dont have truckloads of money so I cant think like a rich man.

Unknown soldier · 15th July 2003

for the ignorant question......but does it really SOUND that good? I mean, I've heard some $3-4K pieces of gear that sound very nice, but how much nicer can it get???? Or most likely is it such a signature sound that can't be had anywhere else thus driving up the price???

deft_bonz · 16th July 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by Fletcher
...

The mostest funnest part of 670's and the like is that the supply of 6386 tubes is dwindling... and when they're gone... the owner of the unit is gonna have to adapt to the whatever 'variable MU (tm)' tubes are available... which means that their venerable 670 ain't gonna be a 670 anymore...

i've seen this tube going for 57.50$ each! so replacing them would cost over 400$ plus 800$ for 2 reserve kits. this seems to me not too much for 670's and his price!

regards deft:::

lowswing · 16th July 2003

i read an artical with the guy that was engineering for motown.
he said they were so happy to trade their 670 for a La2a when la2a just came out...

Dave Martin · 16th July 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by lowswing
i read an artical with the guy that was engineering for motown.
he said they were so happy to trade their 670 for a La2a when la2a just came out...

Was that Bob Olhsson? I know that he wasn't that big a fan of the 670's...

Thermionic · 17th July 2003

In the last 6 months I've seen more 670s crop up for sale than in the last 10 yrs...My take would be that the owners want to sell them whilst there's still some life left in the tubes. 6386 are getting very scarce, not to mention that you want to match them for optimum performance, so that will increase the price dramatically bearing in mind a lot of 6386s vary like hell in terms of quality / microphony on a tester...

The 6386 has NO genuine equivalent, therefore as Fletcher correctly states, a 670 with 2C51 / 5670s is not the real deal. the remote cutoff in a 6386 means that it can apply high levels of compression without distortion, the so-called "equivalents" start to sound crap if you push them above 12dB or so GR. Be careful when buying 6386, I see a lot of fakes on ebay, and have bought limiters with them in to my annoyance...

I've got a small stash of 6386 I was planning to use in a 670 clone. Due to their life-expectancy (and cold-feet on building a 670 "clone", wonder why?) I'm now planning to get something like a Manley vari-mu to make them last longer, when they're gone they're gone...

**EveAnna Manley** · 17th July 2003

Paul over here at Manley Labs worked out a superb 6386 replacement thingy using 2 x 6BA6's on a little pcb that retro-fits into a 6386 socket. The curves of this arrangement overlap the 6386 curves exactly, and what's the greatest thing is we can select two 6BA6's to match each other whereas with the 6386 (or any other dual triode) you are stuck with the two sections that are inside the glass bottle for better or worse. In these differential limiter circuits, keeping both phase halves as equal as possible is what you want.

Truthfully, we've been looking for someone with a Fairchild who wants to try Paul's little t-bar mod thing out in it. It's a plug-in mod. No soldering required. Anyone? We need a ginea pig.

Cuz if that works and fits and all that in a Fairchild, then we would have a good solution for all you guys who are in 6386 hell.

Contact me if you want to be the volunteer. Probably just need one volunteer for now...

Dave Martin · 18th July 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by EveAnna Manley

Cuz if that works and fits and all that in a Fairchild, then we would have a good solution for all you guys who are in 6386 hell.

Contact me if you want to be the volunteer. Probably just need one volunteer for now...

Evanna, if you'd like to try it in another 6386 based limiter, I'd stick one in my GE BA-9B - I've got two, one is currently being modded by CHarlie Brewer - the other has been modded to include input and output level controls as wellas a VU meter. Assuming that the two units sound functionally identical, it may show something to replace the 6386 in one of the units with the T-Bar mod.

**EveAnna Manley** · 18th July 2003

Hey Dave, That would be cool if you want to give that a go, forward a schematic of that GE BA-9B over to Paul over here and he can send you the right version of his t-bar board to try out in it. I guess if we can get a coupla these things working well in several different old units we can declare this thing more or less a universal replacement equivalent to 6386 and that would help lotsa people.

I am pretty sure it's going to do it. But of course we need you beta testers to make sure...

Where's our Fairchild volunteer?

Brad Blackwood · 18th July 2003

EveAnna, I'm trying to talk Ardent into doing this as you read this. Hopefully you will be hearing from the tech soon...

Dave Martin · 18th July 2003

Quote:

Originally posted by EveAnna Manley
Hey Dave, That would be cool if you want to give that a go, forward a schematic of that GE BA-9B over to Paul over here and he can send you the right version of his t-bar board to try out in it. I guess if we can get a coupla these things working well in several different old units we can declare this thing more or less a universal replacement equivalent to 6386 and that would help lotsa people.

Where's our Fairchild volunteer?

I'll send one as soon as Charlie gets through drawing it. And If I see any of the Ocean Way Nashville guys at NAMM today, I'll ask them; they've got a couple of 670's that I sawyesterday; one upstairs and one downstairs.

**EveAnna Manley** · 18th July 2003

Hey thanks Brad,
Chris at Ardent emailed me this morning.
So we have our two volunteers and we'll get cracking on this testing with 'em. I'll let you guys all know how it goes.

PRS1JAZZ · 18th July 2003

19K for a compressor.......

Thats $19,000 for a compressor...........

Hold on..... you said 19K right.......................

NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**EveAnna Manley** · 26th July 2003

Update on our little project:

Yow... Chris at Ardent sent me pictures of the 6386 locations in his Fairchildren and our little adaptor baord is not going to fit in there as it is without crashing into the transformers or removing the tube shield bases.

We'll have to make some dedicated adaptor boards for Fairchildren... sometime... when we get the time.

stumcc · 17th April 2007

Hi Eva,

I've got a 670 & we're just debating what we're going to do to get round the diminishing quality of 6386 tubes. I'm over in Glasgow, Scotland but we've got in house maintenance so building up things shouldn't be too difficult. We tried 5670s in one side yesterday & obviously there's huge change in the gain reduction & overall tonality.

We could easily do the same with your mod & record the results of each side & send them over to you. Let me know what you think.

Mike Brylinski · 2nd March 2008

i have an ADL 670 for sale if anyone is interested

http://cgi.ebay.com/Anthony-Demaria-...QQcmdZViewItem

$10,000

magooamps · 12th January 2009

http://www.jj-electronic.com/pdf/6386LGP.pdf

tubes_warm_me · 18th January 2009

i see that the cost of the new ADL 660 is $14,000 will the 670 do dual mono. i would hate to have to spend $28,000 in order to mono or stereo when the stereo version is $18,000. If any one could let me know and also maybe send me a high res pic of the front and back of the beast that would be cool!

nobtwiddler · 18th January 2009

I own a ADL-670, #3 I believe.
Had it for about 6 years now.
It does dual mono better then it does the stereo thing~!
(just like a real Fairchild)
It can be pretty tricky to get these things to track stereo correctly, but with the right track, when taking the time to set it up correctly, it is really a thing of beauty~!

yrplace · 18th January 2009

Around 1985 all the gear from the old Wally Heider studios in Los Angeles was sold off after the studio went bankrupt (it had been through several owners).

The studio had several 670's and Jackson bought them all for $2500 each. Everyone thought this was just crazy $2500 for a compressor!!!!. Remember at the time a blackface 1176 could be had for $300 and esoteric gear like an RCA BA-6 could be found for free, and Neumann U-47's could be had for under $1000 so spending $2500 for a stereo compressor seemed rather outlandish.

Of course everyone else was wrong , and Jackson certainly made a good investment , but I don't think his purchase had anything to do with the eventual climb in the price of the 670 or for that matter all the other gear that now sells for far more than ever before....

A better question might be how the lowly Sta-Level got to be worth over $2000. I remember when they could be easily found for $50.00 in the early 1990's, but then I know techs who threw 670's away in the early 70's because they were cluttering up the shop floor in some major studios . Its all about supply and demand.

And as for mics, when I started working around 1972 I worked in some really 2nd rate studios in both LA and New York and they all had 47's and Tele 251's because in those days no one else really wanted them and they could be bought for almost nothing.

Ahh the good old days...........

Resonater · 18th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fletcher

It's 8x 6386's... 4 for left, 4 for right... and yeah... they seem to only have an optimal life span of about 1500-2000 hours... they'll work for 5-10,000 hours but after about 2000 hours they start to fade a bit.

Fletcher,

I'm not a tube expert, but are you sure about that? I mean, 2000 hours is about 80 days of solid-on. That seems considerably too short to me.

13th July 2003	#1
Neve Sucks! Gear maniac Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 277 Thread Starter	ADL 670. The BEAST.... Anybody? Has anybody tried this beast of compressor yet? Is it worth $18995.......? Attached Thumbnails

14th July 2003	#6
Brad Blackwood Craneslut Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: The home of Rock-n-Roll, Memphis, TN Posts: 1,896	And at, what, 18 6386's per 670, that's gonna happen really soon, too... Besides, those things eat tubes, if you're gonna keep them properly cal'd (most do not). __________________ euphonic masters

15th July 2003	#11
Unknown soldier Lives for gear Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: solar system Posts: 867	excuse me.... for the ignorant question......but does it really SOUND that good? I mean, I've heard some $3-4K pieces of gear that sound very nice, but how much nicer can it get???? Or most likely is it such a signature sound that can't be had anywhere else thus driving up the price???

16th July 2003	#13
lowswing Lives for gear Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Germany Posts: 1,446	i read an artical with the guy that was engineering for motown. he said they were so happy to trade their 670 for a La2a when la2a just came out... __________________ Guy Sternberg Engineer, Producer LowSwing Studios, berlin www.lowswing.de

17th July 2003	#16
EveAnna Manley Moderator Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Chino, CA (cowtown) Posts: 671	Paul over here at Manley Labs worked out a superb 6386 replacement thingy using 2 x 6BA6's on a little pcb that retro-fits into a 6386 socket. The curves of this arrangement overlap the 6386 curves exactly, and what's the greatest thing is we can select two 6BA6's to match each other whereas with the 6386 (or any other dual triode) you are stuck with the two sections that are inside the glass bottle for better or worse. In these differential limiter circuits, keeping both phase halves as equal as possible is what you want. Truthfully, we've been looking for someone with a Fairchild who wants to try Paul's little t-bar mod thing out in it. It's a plug-in mod. No soldering required. Anyone? We need a ginea pig. Cuz if that works and fits and all that in a Fairchild, then we would have a good solution for all you guys who are in 6386 hell. Contact me if you want to be the volunteer. Probably just need one volunteer for now... __________________ Cheers, EveAnna Manley, Manley Laboratories, Inc. www.manleylabs.com

14th July 2003	#2
e-cue Lives for gear Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Lost Angeles Posts: 4,061	If you think the Farichild is worth the current asking price, then yes... That's just way too much money for me to even consider to spend on one peice of gear. They do sound faithful to the original.

14th July 2003	#3
soundguy Gear nut Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: nyc Posts: 87	I havent tried one. but considering what is available on the market today, I think if it were $7K, I would still laugh at the asking price, let alone some $19K. Sure, there is a fetish for everyone, but consider what kind of ABSOLUTE TOP SHELF gear you can aquire for nineteen thousand dollars. nineteen thousand dollars. I could solve alot of problems with that kind of money, problems that two channels of any kind of compression, holy grail or otherwise, really only put a dent in. dave

15th July 2003	#7
Fletcher member no 666 Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Durham, NC Posts: 9,464	It's 8x 6386's... 4 for left, 4 for right... and yeah... they seem to only have an optimal life span of about 1500-2000 hours... they'll work for 5-10,000 hours but after about 2000 hours they start to fade a bit.

15th July 2003	#10
2064 Gear Head Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: l Posts: 54	Even if I had truckloads of money I wouldnt pay that for a compressor. But then again I dont have truckloads of money so I cant think like a rich man.

17th July 2003	#15
Thermionic Lives for gear Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: UK Posts: 678	In the last 6 months I've seen more 670s crop up for sale than in the last 10 yrs...My take would be that the owners want to sell them whilst there's still some life left in the tubes. 6386 are getting very scarce, not to mention that you want to match them for optimum performance, so that will increase the price dramatically bearing in mind a lot of 6386s vary like hell in terms of quality / microphony on a tester... The 6386 has NO genuine equivalent, therefore as Fletcher correctly states, a 670 with 2C51 / 5670s is not the real deal. the remote cutoff in a 6386 means that it can apply high levels of compression without distortion, the so-called "equivalents" start to sound crap if you push them above 12dB or so GR. Be careful when buying 6386, I see a lot of fakes on ebay, and have bought limiters with them in to my annoyance... I've got a small stash of 6386 I was planning to use in a 670 clone. Due to their life-expectancy (and cold-feet on building a 670 "clone", wonder why?) I'm now planning to get something like a Manley vari-mu to make them last longer, when they're gone they're gone...

18th July 2003	#18
EveAnna Manley Moderator Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Chino, CA (cowtown) Posts: 671	Hey Dave, That would be cool if you want to give that a go, forward a schematic of that GE BA-9B over to Paul over here and he can send you the right version of his t-bar board to try out in it. I guess if we can get a coupla these things working well in several different old units we can declare this thing more or less a universal replacement equivalent to 6386 and that would help lotsa people. I am pretty sure it's going to do it. But of course we need you beta testers to make sure... Where's our Fairchild volunteer?

18th July 2003	#22
PRS1JAZZ Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Worcester, MA Posts: 911	19K for a compressor....... Thats $19,000 for a compressor........... Hold on..... you said 19K right....................... NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

26th July 2003	#23
EveAnna Manley Moderator Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Chino, CA (cowtown) Posts: 671	Update on our little project: Yow... Chris at Ardent sent me pictures of the 6386 locations in his Fairchildren and our little adaptor baord is not going to fit in there as it is without crashing into the transformers or removing the tube shield bases. We'll have to make some dedicated adaptor boards for Fairchildren... sometime... when we get the time.

17th April 2007	#24
stumcc Gear interested Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3	Hi Eva, I've got a 670 & we're just debating what we're going to do to get round the diminishing quality of 6386 tubes. I'm over in Glasgow, Scotland but we've got in house maintenance so building up things shouldn't be too difficult. We tried 5670s in one side yesterday & obviously there's huge change in the gain reduction & overall tonality. We could easily do the same with your mod & record the results of each side & send them over to you. Let me know what you think.

2nd March 2008	#25
Mike Brylinski Gear Head Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 40	i have an ADL 670 for sale if anyone is interested http://cgi.ebay.com/Anthony-Demaria-...QQcmdZViewItem $10,000

12th January 2009	#26
magooamps Gear interested Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 21	http://www.jj-electronic.com/pdf/6386LGP.pdf

18th January 2009	#27
tubes_warm_me Gear interested Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 4	dual mono? i see that the cost of the new ADL 660 is $14,000 will the 670 do dual mono. i would hate to have to spend $28,000 in order to mono or stereo when the stereo version is $18,000. If any one could let me know and also maybe send me a high res pic of the front and back of the beast that would be cool!

18th January 2009	#28
nobtwiddler Lives for gear Join Date: May 2005 Location: Millbrook, NY Posts: 2,153	670 #3 I own a ADL-670, #3 I believe. Had it for about 6 years now. It does dual mono better then it does the stereo thing~! (just like a real Fairchild) It can be pretty tricky to get these things to track stereo correctly, but with the right track, when taking the time to set it up correctly, it is really a thing of beauty~! Attached Thumbnails __________________ Cheers Paul www.millbrooksoundstudios.com A coupla, two, tree, credits http://www.allmusic.com/artist/paul-...111434/credits

18th January 2009	#29
yrplace Lives for gear Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: lost angeles Posts: 1,738	Jackson Browne Around 1985 all the gear from the old Wally Heider studios in Los Angeles was sold off after the studio went bankrupt (it had been through several owners). The studio had several 670's and Jackson bought them all for $2500 each. Everyone thought this was just crazy $2500 for a compressor!!!!. Remember at the time a blackface 1176 could be had for $300 and esoteric gear like an RCA BA-6 could be found for free, and Neumann U-47's could be had for under $1000 so spending $2500 for a stereo compressor seemed rather outlandish. Of course everyone else was wrong , and Jackson certainly made a good investment , but I don't think his purchase had anything to do with the eventual climb in the price of the 670 or for that matter all the other gear that now sells for far more than ever before.... A better question might be how the lowly Sta-Level got to be worth over $2000. I remember when they could be easily found for $50.00 in the early 1990's, but then I know techs who threw 670's away in the early 70's because they were cluttering up the shop floor in some major studios . Its all about supply and demand. And as for mics, when I started working around 1972 I worked in some really 2nd rate studios in both LA and New York and they all had 47's and Tele 251's because in those days no one else really wanted them and they could be bought for almost nothing. Ahh the good old days...........

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Fairchild 670, Ear 660 or ADL 670? which are the best?	walth	High end	38	1 Week Ago 08:58 PM
ADL 670 - Fairchild 670 - Pendulum 6386	Dirty Halo	High end	3	2nd March 2008 09:17 AM
Just turned on the ADL 670 ...	mac black	High end	5	11th August 2007 08:49 AM
ADL 670	batcave	Q&A with Michael H. Brauer	1	30th September 2005 04:10 AM