Urei / Jbl 7510A?

[Lee Knight]

I'm assuming you guys are bypassing the master section and using the direct outs, unbalanced, +4. Is there another way to utilizes these I haven't thought of? I'm not particularly interested in the gates. I'm sure they're great but don't really suit my work flow. I am aware I can use the gates in direct out as well but haven't as yet.

As it stands now, I'm direct out, unbalanced, +4. No gate. Yeah?

[cleantone]

As far as I know the gate is only used when you have the toggle in the "automatic" setting.

Also it is unbalanced but is configured to use balanced cables, in case anyone wanted to know.

I would be interested in seeing the dsub connectors you rigged up. Can you take a pic by chance? Or link to the parts you used?

I also realized last night that my splitters have 20db pads on a switch.

I still think I want a 3 way switch or variable resistors on a rack panel above the unit.

[Lee Knight]

Originally Posted by cleantone

As far as I know the gate is only used when you have the toggle in the "automatic" setting.

Also it is unbalanced but is configured to use balanced cables, in case anyone wanted to know.

I would be interested in seeing the dsub connectors you rigged up. Can you take a pic by chance? Or link to the parts you used?

I also realized last night that my splitters have 20db pads on a switch.

I still think I want a 3 way switch or variable resistors on a rack panel above the unit.

The chances of me figuring out how to post a pic are slim. I'm a total noob with regards to posting attachments. But let me spell it out for you...

The dsub connector is a 15 pin connector available for 99 cents at Fry's etc. There are also matching metal cases to take the strain off the large cable that would usually be sprouting out of the back of these for remote control, or for other apps like printer cables etc. But since we're just jumping back into the unit, the case is for handling and protection. Kind of like a printer cable minus the cable. Just the molded end, except in metal. Nice and clean and secure.

The wiring is simple once you decipher the manual. (Page 17, bottom right hand corner) Each corner pin gets jumped to it's adjacent pin. Each corner pin corresponds to a pre in the four pre module. Then, the middle three pins on the shorter row get jumped together for ground. I used stranded wire with the three ends being soldered together. Taped it. Encased it. Marked it with resistor value and it's corresponding gain in dB.

So, 1+2, 7+8, 9+10, and 14+15, all get jumped with with either straight wire or a resistor, depending on your needs. 1 to 2, 7 to 8, etc. I used the 330 ohm for 25 dB of gain. 11+12+13 all get tied together for ground (obviously, no resistor here). I used stranded, insulated wire here and solder they're loose ends together and taped off.

1---------8
00000000

9-------15
0000000

[cleantone]

11+12+13 all get tied together for ground (obviously, no resistor here). I used stranded, insulated wire here and solder they're loose ends together and taped off.

Do you mean on the unit this is done internally but if you insert pins on a dsub it interrupts the ground? If so two things come to mind...

A. could you take out those pins on the dsub so it would not interrupt the ground?
B. you could add a ground lift function with a switch. Not that it would be all that handy.

I think I am gonna get some dsubs and wire up a three way switch with two different levels of attenuation.

glad to have this thread back in action.

[Lee Knight]

Originally Posted by cleantone

Do you mean on the unit this is done internally but if you insert pins on a dsub it interrupts the ground? If so two things come to mind...

A. could you take out those pins on the dsub so it would not interrupt the ground?
B. you could add a ground lift function with a switch. Not that it would be all that handy.

I think I am gonna get some dsubs and wire up a three way switch with two different levels of attenuation.

glad to have this thread back in action.

I actually don't know what I mean. I'm only following the manual's advice for wiring these suckers up. Since they work fine without any pins in place at unity, I wasn't sure how that tied into the need for wiring the ground at the plug. All I know is, when wired as I mention, it rocks nicely.

[René Hatt]

Just FYI - I'm selling a Urei / JBL 7510 fully equipped with all 24 channels over at ebay, FOB Switzerland:

Urei JBL 7510 24ch Microphone Preamp Vorverstärker bei eBay.de: Studioprozessoren (endet 27.07.08 21:02:24 MESZ)

I had a hard time deciding, but I need the money for a new guitar.

[cleantone]

Man I have watched two of these on ebay in the last couple of weeks. One sold for like $1100 and one last night that looked beat up sold for $875. Cats out of the bag. I am so glad I got my 24 channel unit! Anyone been using these lately?

[Randall]

Originally Posted by cleantone

Man I have watched two of these on ebay in the last couple of weeks. One sold for like $1100 and one last night that looked beat up sold for $875. Cats out of the bag. I am so glad I got my 24 channel unit! Anyone been using these lately?

1100 fully loaded is still damn cheap.

[René Hatt]

Some months ago there was a unit on e-bay for around $300, and no one bid. Maybe the hype will decrease again, or you can still be lucky.

I bought my 7510 (no A or B) last January for $90 and sold it two weeks ago on e-bay for $1150. Such deals kind of make me feel guilty...

The man who sold it to me said that it has been advertised on their website (where I found it after seeing one on e-bay and reading gearslutz) for two years with no reaction, but that shortly after my call there was someone else calling. Maybe another gearslutzer...

I tested the unit with guitar and mandocello (bouzouki). In one test I split the mic signal to feed the Urei and an API 512c. From those short tests my impressions were:

The Mic Pres are solid and have a lot of character ("iron"), but the frequencies below 1k are quite dominant. It can sound a bit boxy, but you can of course correct that with a bit of EQ. If you listen to it for a while and then switch to an API, the API seems to be hyped - more upper frequencies, less mids below 1k. The lower frequencies of the Urei are strong and solid, and the strong mids give it a nice 'vintage flavour'. The highs seemed to be a bit uneven (at least in my short tests).

The gates are quite impressive, from what I can tell.

It's certainly a great unit for $45 per channel. Or $4 per channel...

I would have kept the unit if I hadn't needed money for my new guitars. And anyway I've got enough high end mic pres and almost never use gates. So someone got a great unit for "damn cheap", as Randall stated. And I got my new guitars ;-)

[Bassmankr]

That's a big problem around here, if a few guys like a pc. of gear, hype it here and it only attracts 2 guys that want it bad on ebay, it will shoot way up there in price. The latest example of this was a Langevin mixer up on ebay that someone pointed out in the "HIGH END" forum and a few posters raved about the mic pres. Although the concensus of the thread said that mixer should be sold in the $2k range, it went for $6k. Interesting how that seller had another Langevin mixer to sell after the auction was over. If I were a smart dealer with low morals (not that any of those guys ever show up on slutz LOL) I'd hype the hell out of something I was going to sell and maybe even shill the first few of them way up there to set an artifically high market price and then let the suckers line up. The way the JBL's have been going lately looks like a few guys with hardons for one or some smart sellers. It will cool off and they will start going for a more reasonable price given their age as most will need a recapping soon. I just picked up a second AMR large format mixer (16 buss) for $700 to use as spare parts for my existing AMR (24 buss). It will also help a few other AMR owners that I'll offer some modules to for spares at a low reasonable price so we will ALL be winners. These are solid desks but none of the owners of them including myself have hyped them here in the forums, point being made here is that there are plenty of solid values out there in the used gear market to go after rather than getting caught up in the latest bidding war/shilled/forum hyped piece of gear. Figure what you need next and do some homework on long term used market price before getting caught up in a feeding frenzy LOL.

[Randall]

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

That's a big problem around here, if a few guys like a pc. of gear, hype it here and it only attracts 2 guys that want it bad on ebay, it will shoot way up there in price. The latest example of this was a Langevin mixer up on ebay that someone pointed out in the "HIGH END" forum and a few posters raved about the mic pres. Although the concensus of the thread said that mixer should be sold in the $2k range, it went for $6k. Interesting how that seller had another Langevin mixer to sell after the auction was over. If I were a smart dealer with low morals (not that any of those guys ever show up on slutz LOL) I'd hype the hell out of something I was going to sell and maybe even shill the first few of them way up there to set an artifically high market price and then let the suckers line up. The way the JBL's have been going lately looks like a few guys with hardons for one or some smart sellers. It will cool off and they will start going for a more reasonable price given their age as most will need a recapping soon. I just picked up a second AMR large format mixer (16 buss) for $700 to use as spare parts for my existing AMR (24 buss). It will also help a few other AMR owners that I'll offer some modules to for spares at a low reasonable price so we will ALL be winners. These are solid desks but none of the owners of them including myself have hyped them here in the forums, point being made here is that there are plenty of solid values out there in the used gear market to go after rather than getting caught up in the latest bidding war/shilled/forum hyped piece of gear. Figure what you need next and do some homework on long term used market price before getting caught up in a feeding frenzy LOL.

And your point? What does all that have to do with this thread?

[René Hatt]

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

That's a big problem around here, if a few guys like a pc. of gear, hype it here and it only attracts 2 guys that want it bad on ebay, it will shoot way up there in price. The latest example of this was a Langevin mixer up on ebay that someone pointed out in the "HIGH END" forum and a few posters raved about the mic pres. Although the concensus of the thread said that mixer should be sold in the $2k range, it went for $6k. Interesting how that seller had another Langevin mixer to sell after the auction was over. If I were a smart dealer with low morals (not that any of those guys ever show up on slutz LOL) I'd hype the hell out of something I was going to sell and maybe even shill the first few of them way up there to set an artifically high market price and then let the suckers line up. The way the JBL's have been going lately looks like a few guys with hardons for one or some smart sellers. It will cool off and they will start going for a more reasonable price given their age as most will need a recapping soon. I just picked up a second AMR large format mixer (16 buss) for $700 to use as spare parts for my existing AMR (24 buss). It will also help a few other AMR owners that I'll offer some modules to for spares at a low reasonable price so we will ALL be winners. These are solid desks but none of the owners of them including myself have hyped them here in the forums, point being made here is that there are plenty of solid values out there in the used gear market to go after rather than getting caught up in the latest bidding war/shilled/forum hyped piece of gear. Figure what you need next and do some homework on long term used market price before getting caught up in a feeding frenzy LOL.

Nobody has to buy anything... And you should always take statements written in an Internet forum with at least one teaspoon of salt.

I tried to describe the character and tone of the 7510 here and (earlier) over at acapella.harmony-central as good as I could (and I also mentioned these threads in my e-bay auction of the 7510), so that people interested in that unit can get an idea of how it actually sounds and behaves, and not only see the hype.

It's sometimes surprising how people rave about units that are very useful, but not exceptionally great. But then again, $45 for a mic pre with the quality of the 7510 is undeniable a great bargain.

While the pres of the 7510 are good as a complementary flavour to an API or another high end pre, I wouldn't replace a 512c with a 7510 pre (or 24 of them). But if you've only got a Mackie, or if you're looking for a special flavour to add to your mic pre arsenal, the 7510 might be a great addition. If you want a mic pre with a lot of character, very strong lower mids and a vintage tone, along with well designed gates (and probably some maintenance issues along the way...), the 7510 is a good unit. If you want to have a high end mic pre, buy the real thing, and pay the price for it.

René

This tread is very useful for general infos about the unit, and it helped me get an overall picture. And it played a big role in my decision to buy the unit.

One point that (as far as I can tell) nobody mentioned so far is that the original 7510 (no A or B) has phantom power on all channels, and you cannot turn it off. If I had kept the unit, I would have cut the phantom power rail of some of the pres.
The newer units have a switch for phantom power on or off.

Now, let's sit back and see the prices for AMR mixers rise... ;-)

[Bassmankr]

"Now, let's sit back and see the prices for AMR mixers rise... ;-)"

That got me laughing, good one! The AMR's are too big to ship at a reasonable cost so that should kill any frenzy with them LOL.


"What's my point?"

I was talking about the Gearslutz feeding frenzy syndrome which the JBL is now part of, just like the example I gave on the Langevin (another recent feeding frenzy victim). The JBL's went from a steady under $300 ebay item a couple years ago to the recent $1000+ for the last few and then the most recent $850 (maybe the frenzy is subsiding). I did not make any comments on the quality or usability of the JBL. I'm not knocking the JBL, just the feeding frenzy, I thought I made that point pretty clear in the last couple sentences of the post.

[Randall]

This thread is 5 - 6 years old.. maybe more

[Bassmankr]

The frenzy started when a poster found out they could add a resistor to the dsub and make the unit more usable (info that was in the user's manual to begin with), and though the thread is old, that additional info to the thread is recent and in my opinion the start of the frenzy as prices soared right after that. Not tryin to step on toes, I'm just sharing my observations. If I can pickup a unit cheap I'll probably give it a try myself BUT the key word is cheap. At $40 - $50 a mic pre there are other non-frenzy options out there. I missed getting in on the group buy for the Neve mic pre clones but that is going to be interesting when they show up soon. If they turn out good and if they do another group buy, that may be a great bargain for all of us to get into although that will be over $200 a pre by the time they swap out transformers. With those units, the more of us that want one, the LOWER the cost will be. Kind of a anti Gearslutz feeding frenzy syndrome LOL.