Symetrix ? Who are they?

[Psychoguitarz]

I have to say, I had never heard of Symetrix until I heard it here on Gearslutz.
Shame on me tutt I was intrigued by what everyone said here and picked up 2 different units.


Symetrix 525 - I found this piece useless for any studio application. Noisy and the gates were awful. It's just a weak unit in my opinion.

Symetrix CL-100 - cool little unit, tried it on a few different things, not so good for vox but cool on guitar. I've used it on snare as well and it was not to bad. I really look forward to tinkering with this piece.

I hear the mic pres are pretty cool, I may try one of those..

So who is this Symetrix company and why did they never take off when there's crap out there like Alesis?

[Scott 1/2 Normal]

I have had excellent experience with Symetrix products. As a dealer I have no involvement with the product, but maybe I should.

I have purchased both the 302 dual pre and the 304 headphone amp. I sincerely believe that the 302 is one of the best value for money pre amps available. Whilst it's arguably not in the league of the kind of products that i do sell (Buzz, SSL for instance), it offers excellent specs for around $700 AUS. They are quiet and offer plenty of headroom.

I built a studio in a training facility about 6 years ago. The centrepiece of the studio was a Fairlight Prodigy which has no on board pres. I installed 4 channels of DBX 386 Tube pres and 20 channels of symetrix 302's. The 302's beat the DBX units hands down at less than half the price.

If you need something in big multiples and you are on a budget, I don't think you can beat them. Gradually replace them with Buzz MA2.2's as you can afford them! Good quality solid state electronics.

Go on all you pre nerds - shout me down as a heretic!

[AllAboutTone]

the stuff is excellent for the price, clean and just great compression, 501, 525.

[moon_unit]

Originally Posted by Psychoguitarz

So who is this Symetrix company and why did they never take off when there's crap out there like Alesis?

I don't know where you've been, but Symetrix have been doing just fine from what I can gather.

Been around about 30 yrs or so. For a very long time, their gear was synonymous with radio broadcast and voiceover production. At one point, you would have been very hard-pressed to find a single radio station on the planet that didn't at least have some Symetrix gear on hand. In latter years, they've been associated more with higher-end live sound setups (DJs, etc.) and public address.

Lately, they've been making somewhat of a splash in to the (semi)boutique pro audio market with their Lucid line of A/D and D/A converters ...

http://www.lucidaudio.com/index.php?Show=216

thumbsup

[DivineMusic]

symetrix is lucid... which we all know lucid isn't cheap stuff at all.
i'm actually about to switch to lucid converters in my studio. i'll be getting the 88192's soon. haven't found to much info about them but i trust the ad9624 and these from what my ppl have told me are that much better. they have a nice price tag too seeing that i'm getting 8ch of a/d d/a, 8ch of aes/ebu,8ch of smux adat, word clock.
don't have to worry about spending extra money on expensive dsub wires from apogee or whom ever...
check the 88192 out

[AllAboutTone]

Originally Posted by DivineMusic

DivineMusic 2-23-07 ppl wanna praise protools like its the best thing since pu$$y

LMAO.....

Symetrix is at least 30 years old but still in high demand, i had some session guys yesterday trying to buy my 501s, hey they are not god but they are worth keeping and using everyday by all means.

[EgyptionRing]

I think there's no 'cool factor' with symetrix stuff. Which in a way is good, it keeps the prices down. I had a 302 that could hold its own with all the trendier mid-level products.

[chetatkinsdiet]

Yeah, for studio work, the older SX20X series is probably the best sounding stuff. The old SX202 pre is great. Especially when you do the Monte McGuire mods. Actually, just the opamp swap is enough to bring these pres up to somewhere around the Sytek level. Very clean and easy to use. I've also got the compressor and eq in the same series and they're usable as well. The compressor in addition to the pre make a nice little two track mobile rig. The 501 compressor's are the other standout.

m

[Nosound]

Originally Posted by Psychoguitarz

I have to say, I had never heard of Symetrix until I heard it here on Gearslutz.
Shame on me tutt I was intrigued by what everyone said here and picked up 2 different units.


Symetrix 525 - I found this piece useless for any studio application. Noisy and the gates were awful. It's just a weak unit in my opinion.

Symetrix CL-100 - cool little unit, tried it on a few different things, not so good for vox but cool on guitar. I've used it on snare as well and it was not to bad. I really look forward to tinkering with this piece.

I hear the mic pres are pretty cool, I may try one of those..

So who is this Symetrix company and why did they never take off when there's crap out there like Alesis?

Hey watch it now! my Alesis stuff has paid itself off 10x over I use Alesis HD24XR along witha Toft mixer , the converters are design by Lexicon also I use the midiverb 4. Ever listen to Waterfall by Destiny's Child guess what ? part of that mix down was done with a Alesis not all Alesis products are crap. But there is tons of junk out on the market that different companies make. Just like you found out with Symetrix just gotta know which products to buy. Guess that's why your here asking about Symetrix

[jackrabbit]

Originally Posted by Psychoguitarz

I have to say, I had never heard of Symetrix until I heard it here on Gearslutz.
Shame on me tutt I was intrigued by what everyone said here and picked up 2 different units.


Symetrix 525 - I found this piece useless for any studio application. Noisy and the gates were awful. It's just a weak unit in my opinion.

Symetrix CL-100 - cool little unit, tried it on a few different things, not so good for vox but cool on guitar. I've used it on snare as well and it was not to bad. I really look forward to tinkering with this piece.

I hear the mic pres are pretty cool, I may try one of those..

So who is this Symetrix company and why did they never take off when there's crap out there like Alesis?

Cl-100: when used in series, can sound really good to get that up close compressed vocal sound on a budget. I've put a dbx 119, followed by a Cl-100, each doing about the same amount of compression, to get that type of sound.

The preamps are decent. I sent one of mine to Jim Williams, who modded it into an outstanding sounding peice of gear. Symetrix stuff goes cheaper nowadays than when i bought my own 3 years ago....you can get them now, use them, and then instead of selling them to get something better, get the mod that gives you awesome performance at relatively little cost!

[Psychoguitarz]

Originally Posted by Nosound

Hey watch it now! my Alesis stuff has paid itself off 10x over I use Alesis HD24XR along witha Toft mixer , the converters are design by Lexicon also I use the midiverb 4. Ever listen to Waterfall by Destiny's Child guess what ? part of that mix down was done with a Alesis not all Alesis products are crap. But there is tons of junk out on the market that different companies make. Just like you found out with Symetrix just gotta know which products to buy. Guess that's why your here asking about Symetrix

No offense, it's all good I'm sure I there are some Alesis products that serve their purpose.


I've just had so many Alesis products die on me and those 3630 comps were therrible eeeeks

[Psychoguitarz]

Originally Posted by jackrabbit

Cl-100: when used in series, can sound really good to get that up close compressed vocal sound on a budget. I've put a dbx 119, followed by a Cl-100, each doing about the same amount of compression, to get that type of sound.

The preamps are decent. I sent one of mine to Jim Williams, who modded it into an outstanding sounding peice of gear. Symetrix stuff goes cheaper nowadays than when i bought my own 3 years ago....you can get them now, use them, and then instead of selling them to get something better, get the mod that gives you awesome performance at relatively little cost!

Thanks I am going to try running the CL-100 in series and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the tip...

And thanks a bazillion for all the cool replies. I am going to try one of their mic pres

You people sold me on it.