Black Lion DigiDesign 002 Mod

voiceaddict · 9th December 2006

As a voice talent, the DigiDesign 002 and MBox (backup) have become two products that are indispensable tools for my work. I wanted to take a moment and post my comments on the modification Black Lion performed on my 002 which I received yesterday, December 8, 2006. Like many others, I asked numerous questions prior to committing myself to the upgrade. At the time I was preparing to purchase an A/D unit from another manufacture when a friend mentioned the Black Lion upgrade. I figured for the cost, it was worth checking out and after my experience with Black Lion's timely email responses, I had very little issue making the decision.

The unit was shipped over night to Black Lion on November 28th for work scheduled on the 30th. I received notification that the unit had arrived on November 29th and was set to go. Black Lion was kind enough to repair the broken headphone jack which had been snapped "in" to the unit years earlier when the back of swivel chair grazed the headphone plug inserted at the time. Upon completion of the modification, I received a notice with the UPS tracking information and the unit arrived as scheduled. After opening the unit, I could smell the work, something I personally enjoyed. I also heard a rattle inside so I opened up the unit to check it out before plugging it in. It would appear the the cold winter weather caused some excessive internal glue to become so brittle it cracked and broke off in transport, but this had nothing to do with the upgrade. Black Lion also stated a two year guarantee on work performed ... glue is glue, the unit was connected and powered up.

My typical setup involves a Sennheiser MKH416P48 or a Neumann U87 into a Buzz Audio Elixir/Essence or Requisite Audio PAL+ to the DigiDesign unit, in this case, the 002. While the session in ProTools was opening I slipped on some headphones, then hit the record button on the controller and read some copy. The result of the Black Lion upgrade is absolutely stunning to put it lightly and I still find it was hard to believe it is an 002, period. I tried the U87 with the modded mic inputs and had a similar reaction. The preamps no longer sound hollow and week. They sound beefy, given the changes made, if I had to buy four preamps like this, I would probably have to start with a Focusrite Red One. Does it mean I may stop using my external preamps? On vacation, yes, I have no reason to pack anything else now.

Overall, I would say many of us have been effected by the "lowest bidder" mentality for which most companies have become known. This upgrade fixes that problem with this particular unit (the DigiDesign 002) and with the money I saved by not buying an external a/d, d/a and clock, I could probably get away with selling the MBox on Ebay, buy a second 002 with upgrade as well.

Kevin

Isle of Weight · 18th December 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by voiceaddict

As a voice talent, the DigiDesign 002 and MBox (backup) have become two products that are indispensable tools for my work. I wanted to take a moment and post my comments on the modification Black Lion performed on my 002 which I received yesterday, December 8, 2006. Like many others, I asked numerous questions prior to committing myself to the upgrade. At the time I was preparing to purchase an A/D unit from another manufacture when a friend mentioned the Black Lion upgrade. I figured for the cost, it was worth checking out and after my experience with Black Lion's timely email responses, I had very little issue making the decision.

The unit was shipped over night to Black Lion on November 28th for work scheduled on the 30th. I received notification that the unit had arrived on November 29th and was set to go. Black Lion was kind enough to repair the broken headphone jack which had been snapped "in" to the unit years earlier when the back of swivel chair grazed the headphone plug inserted at the time. Upon completion of the modification, I received a notice with the UPS tracking information and the unit arrived as scheduled. After opening the unit, I could smell the work, something I personally enjoyed. I also heard a rattle inside so I opened up the unit to check it out before plugging it in. It would appear the the cold winter weather caused some excessive internal glue to become so brittle it cracked and broke off in transport, but this had nothing to do with the upgrade. Black Lion also stated a two year guarantee on work performed ... glue is glue, the unit was connected and powered up.

My typical setup involves a Sennheiser MKH416P48 or a Neumann U87 into a Buzz Audio Elixir/Essence or Requisite Audio PAL+ to the DigiDesign unit, in this case, the 002. While the session in ProTools was opening I slipped on some headphones, then hit the record button on the controller and read some copy. The result of the Black Lion upgrade is absolutely stunning to put it lightly and I still find it was hard to believe it is an 002, period. I tried the U87 with the modded mic inputs and had a similar reaction. The preamps no longer sound hollow and week. They sound beefy, given the changes made, if I had to buy four preamps like this, I would probably have to start with a Focusrite Red One. Does it mean I may stop using my external preamps? On vacation, yes, I have no reason to pack anything else now.

Overall, I would say many of us have been effected by the "lowest bidder" mentality for which most companies have become known. This upgrade fixes that problem with this particular unit (the DigiDesign 002) and with the money I saved by not buying an external a/d, d/a and clock, I could probably get away with selling the MBox on Ebay, buy a second 002 with upgrade as well.

Kevin

Sweet !
I'm excited!!!! I'm picking mine up today, cant wait to hear the results!!!
by the way I've been eyeing the elixir for a while now whats your take on it??
sorry for the small highjack......

AA.

Phrygian · 18th December 2006

I've sent an email off to BLA. I'm not totally pleased with the mod due to the fact my pres are noiser than they've ever been! Sure they sound clearer but once you go past 12:00 it's total noise. Not happy.

I also had to open the unit and connect the wire harness properly. Some cables were pulled and when the unit came back it had issues keeping power. And no, it was not the Pro Tools Power Harness issue (like most people, including BLA, tried to pass it off as).

Hoping they'll rectify the situation. I want clean pres. They were clean before the mod.

theblue1 · 18th December 2006

I looked into the BLA mod for my MOTU 828mkII but after I read the info on a lot of their mods and had a chance to roll it around and read what some very experienced design people said, I decided to give it a pass.

If the BLA mod helped your sound, great, sounds like it was worth it to you.

But some of the things they do, replacing audio opamps with video-purpsoed opamps, for instance... that just don't make no sense to this ol' cowboy. Why extend your HF handling in one small section of your rig far, far above audibility, when it risks the introduction of RF interference and other troubles? It doesn't surprise me that people that some of these mods are noticeably noisy.

Professional converters are designed by experienced digital design engineers, typically with many years of highly specific technical education (not to mention advanced academic degrees) and often as not decades of digital design experience.

SOME modders are hobbyists with soldering irons and a couple of IC catalogs who took a page out of the audiophile book and decided to offer "upgrade mods" with little or no justifiable technical rationale behind their mods, counting on many recording "engineers' " technical naivete and tendancy to buy into the latest buzz in order to market their putative improvements.

Jonkan · 19th December 2006

You bring up an interesting point. However, my impression from communicating with these people, and reading what they have to say about what they do is that they actually have a very good understanding on whats going on inside of your typical ad/da interface.

but dont take my word for it, you should go ahead and ask them yourself why they have chosen to put video opamps in there.

Or you can read this thread over at unicornation which adresses most of your questions (you may have to register though):

http://www.unicornation.com/phpBB2/v...hlight=#100408

Have a nice day!
/J

tgrokz · 19th December 2006

all i know is that i sent mine out, had some problems, sent it back out (they paid for shipping) and a little over a week later, i have an amazing 002. everything sounds fantastic.

CassidyGT · 19th December 2006

I'll second (or third) the BLA Digi 002 mod. Mine was a night and day difference. As a home studio/project guy, I don't have need for lots of pre's or mics. The modded unit has allowed me pare down my $ investment into the studio.

Isle of Weight · 20th December 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Isle of Weight

Sweet !
I'm excited!!!! I'm picking mine up today, cant wait to hear the results!!!
by the way I've been eyeing the elixir for a while now whats your take on it??
sorry for the small highjack......

AA.

ok, just did a short a/b with my BLA modded 002 aganst my partner's 002

Man, wow,
well that was money well spent
I'm having trouble finding the words to say it.
I'll just say this....
anyone who is THINKING about getting this MOD, let me just tell you it's a no brainer!!!!!!!!!!

AA.

Phrygian · 20th December 2006

I'll be making an interesting post about BLA soon. Not a happy customer and would like to warn others.

chrisp2u · 20th December 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phrygian

I'll be making an interesting post about BLA soon. Not a happy customer and would like to warn others.

Hey Phrygian,
Sorry to hear your having issues with your mod.

I can definitely say that something must not be right with yours if it's that noisy compared to what I've experienced with thtat mod. I'm sitting here with headphones on and the headphone level cranked up all the way on mine, and I get virtually no noise up until I get to 3 o'clock on the gains. With the gain all the way up, the noise is pretty rediculous... it seems to jump up substantially at that point (again, with the headphone level all the way) but everything up to full seems well within usable. I'm not to worried about the noise with having them at full either... I've never needed to crank the pres that high anyway.

Hopefully you get it worked out with Matt.
---
c

meteor · 20th December 2006

Had a 002r modded by the guys at BLA. Have to say that I am plenty happy. The new pres aren't brilliant, but they are usable under normal circumstances in a way that the stock pres never were. The same goes for all inputs and outputs - especially the monitoring section where the difference is most obvious. Finally, the clock is just night and day. The old clock was fairly bad to my ears. The new clock is well above average and totally usable. I don't like that the new clock is platform specific (Mac or PC), but I have always been a Mac guy so that didn't affect me.

I wasn't expecting a miracle. I was expecting a noticable and substantial improvement on all fronts. That is exactly what I got. I get to work in very High-End environments fairly regularly, and I think the BLA mod edged my little writing studio/remote rig into a more professional and less amature work environment. The whole process costs less (much less) than 1 channel of a great pre or 1 set of great converters. All in all... I had reasonable expectations for what I was spending and feel that they were exceeded... plain and simple.

cheers,

Phrygian · 20th December 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp2u

Hey Phrygian,
Sorry to hear your having issues with your mod.

I can definitely say that something must not be right with yours if it's that noisy compared to what I've experienced with thtat mod.

I'm not to worried about the noise with having them at full either... I've never needed to crank the pres that high anyway.
---
c

Hey Chris, thanks. I'm just hoping at this point they can send me in the direction of replacement pots and I'll take care of it from there. The noise is brutal on pre one after 11:00. The others do what you describe at about 2:00. It's just unfortunate because two of the mics I use are ribbons and need some juice. In general I found my stock Digi 002 to be pretty damn clean (weird huh?). Granted the pres were more on the dull side, but still clean. I even find that the output volume and headphone volume aren't as high as stock. Weird. Who knows, I'll probably settle down if I get some results.

I just don't like how my first issue (power issue it seemed) was passed off as the power harness issue, when in fact it was stressed wires from a harness hooking up to a curcuit board. Because they passed it off as a Power Harness issue I waited for a replacement. Which made the one week free shipping to BLA warranty void! I later discovered the wire issue. Only then was I able to test the pres.

Where's that violin emoticon when you need it.... lol

chrisp2u · 20th December 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phrygian

I even find that the output volume and headphone volume aren't as high as stock. Weird. Who knows, I'll probably settle down if I get some results.

Hmmm... that's pretty odd too. My headphone gain is the same as it was stock, but the monitor level... holy wow. That was like night and day. I'm monitoring now with it at about 9 o'clock when I used to be between 11 and 12 before. Granted, I did have the D/A upgrade done when BLA was offering that too... not sure if that makes a diff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phrygian

I just don't like how my first issue (power issue it seemed) was passed off as the power harness issue, when in fact it was stressed wires from a harness hooking up to a curcuit board. Because they passed it off as a Power Harness issue I waited for a replacement. Which made the one week free shipping to BLA warranty void! I later discovered the wire issue. Only then was I able to test the pres.

That's a bummer. I have heard of power harness issues developing from shipping due to either the jostling around during the shipping process or due to humidity changes, so I guess that's a first logical assumption. They seem like decent guys, so hopefully they'll take care of you. Best of luck and hopefully you get to actually enjoy it at some point.
---
c

18th December 2006	#4
theblue1 Gear Guru Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 14,279	I looked into the BLA mod for my MOTU 828mkII but after I read the info on a lot of their mods and had a chance to roll it around and read what some very experienced design people said, I decided to give it a pass. If the BLA mod helped your sound, great, sounds like it was worth it to you. But some of the things they do, replacing audio opamps with video-purpsoed opamps, for instance... that just don't make no sense to this ol' cowboy. Why extend your HF handling in one small section of your rig far, far above audibility, when it risks the introduction of RF interference and other troubles? It doesn't surprise me that people that some of these mods are noticeably noisy. Professional converters are designed by experienced digital design engineers, typically with many years of highly specific technical education (not to mention advanced academic degrees) and often as not decades of digital design experience. SOME modders are hobbyists with soldering irons and a couple of IC catalogs who took a page out of the audiophile book and decided to offer "upgrade mods" with little or no justifiable technical rationale behind their mods, counting on many recording "engineers' " technical naivete and tendancy to buy into the latest buzz in order to market their putative improvements. __________________ day job \| A Year of Songs \| music and social stuff \| mutant pop on facebook \| roots acoustic on facebook

20th December 2006	#11
meteor Lives for gear Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: The Lone Star Posts: 554	Had a 002r modded by the guys at BLA. Have to say that I am plenty happy. The new pres aren't brilliant, but they are usable under normal circumstances in a way that the stock pres never were. The same goes for all inputs and outputs - especially the monitoring section where the difference is most obvious. Finally, the clock is just night and day. The old clock was fairly bad to my ears. The new clock is well above average and totally usable. I don't like that the new clock is platform specific (Mac or PC), but I have always been a Mac guy so that didn't affect me. I wasn't expecting a miracle. I was expecting a noticable and substantial improvement on all fronts. That is exactly what I got. I get to work in very High-End environments fairly regularly, and I think the BLA mod edged my little writing studio/remote rig into a more professional and less amature work environment. The whole process costs less (much less) than 1 channel of a great pre or 1 set of great converters. All in all... I had reasonable expectations for what I was spending and feel that they were exceeded... plain and simple. cheers, __________________ "Hope doesn't float. It sinks to the bottom... You need more than hope. You have to believe."

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9th December 2006	#1
voiceaddict Gear nut Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: New York / Los Angeles Posts: 128 Thread Starter	Black Lion DigiDesign 002 Mod As a voice talent, the DigiDesign 002 and MBox (backup) have become two products that are indispensable tools for my work. I wanted to take a moment and post my comments on the modification Black Lion performed on my 002 which I received yesterday, December 8, 2006. Like many others, I asked numerous questions prior to committing myself to the upgrade. At the time I was preparing to purchase an A/D unit from another manufacture when a friend mentioned the Black Lion upgrade. I figured for the cost, it was worth checking out and after my experience with Black Lion's timely email responses, I had very little issue making the decision. The unit was shipped over night to Black Lion on November 28th for work scheduled on the 30th. I received notification that the unit had arrived on November 29th and was set to go. Black Lion was kind enough to repair the broken headphone jack which had been snapped "in" to the unit years earlier when the back of swivel chair grazed the headphone plug inserted at the time. Upon completion of the modification, I received a notice with the UPS tracking information and the unit arrived as scheduled. After opening the unit, I could smell the work, something I personally enjoyed. I also heard a rattle inside so I opened up the unit to check it out before plugging it in. It would appear the the cold winter weather caused some excessive internal glue to become so brittle it cracked and broke off in transport, but this had nothing to do with the upgrade. Black Lion also stated a two year guarantee on work performed ... glue is glue, the unit was connected and powered up. My typical setup involves a Sennheiser MKH416P48 or a Neumann U87 into a Buzz Audio Elixir/Essence or Requisite Audio PAL+ to the DigiDesign unit, in this case, the 002. While the session in ProTools was opening I slipped on some headphones, then hit the record button on the controller and read some copy. The result of the Black Lion upgrade is absolutely stunning to put it lightly and I still find it was hard to believe it is an 002, period. I tried the U87 with the modded mic inputs and had a similar reaction. The preamps no longer sound hollow and week. They sound beefy, given the changes made, if I had to buy four preamps like this, I would probably have to start with a Focusrite Red One. Does it mean I may stop using my external preamps? On vacation, yes, I have no reason to pack anything else now. Overall, I would say many of us have been effected by the "lowest bidder" mentality for which most companies have become known. This upgrade fixes that problem with this particular unit (the DigiDesign 002) and with the money I saved by not buying an external a/d, d/a and clock, I could probably get away with selling the MBox on Ebay, buy a second 002 with upgrade as well. Kevin __________________ Kevin Genus

18th December 2006	#3
Phrygian Lives for gear Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada Posts: 726	I've sent an email off to BLA. I'm not totally pleased with the mod due to the fact my pres are noiser than they've ever been! Sure they sound clearer but once you go past 12:00 it's total noise. Not happy. I also had to open the unit and connect the wire harness properly. Some cables were pulled and when the unit came back it had issues keeping power. And no, it was not the Pro Tools Power Harness issue (like most people, including BLA, tried to pass it off as). Hoping they'll rectify the situation. I want clean pres. They were clean before the mod.

19th December 2006	#5
Jonkan Gear maniac Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Malmö, Sweden Posts: 237	You bring up an interesting point. However, my impression from communicating with these people, and reading what they have to say about what they do is that they actually have a very good understanding on whats going on inside of your typical ad/da interface. but dont take my word for it, you should go ahead and ask them yourself why they have chosen to put video opamps in there. Or you can read this thread over at unicornation which adresses most of your questions (you may have to register though): http://www.unicornation.com/phpBB2/v...hlight=#100408 Have a nice day! /J

19th December 2006	#6
tgrokz Gear maniac Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Long Island, New York Posts: 289	all i know is that i sent mine out, had some problems, sent it back out (they paid for shipping) and a little over a week later, i have an amazing 002. everything sounds fantastic.

19th December 2006	#7
CassidyGT Lives for gear Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: South Central PA Posts: 679	I'll second (or third) the BLA Digi 002 mod. Mine was a night and day difference. As a home studio/project guy, I don't have need for lots of pre's or mics. The modded unit has allowed me pare down my $ investment into the studio.