SOLD: AWA BAR-B / BAR-2B Broadcast Mixer 8ch->2ch

by **Drumstruck** » Mon Sep 29, 2014 5:02 pm

I wrestled hard with myself to let this go - it's a beautiful old piece that's ex-radio Launceston - decommissioned when they went digital.

It's basically 2 x 4 into 1 broadcast mixers - full of valves and germanium goodness with bakelite knobs and real VUs - from the late '50s/early '60s.

The top unit has been upgraded by Rob with phantom power and direct outs / phase / pad switches for each channel so it's up to modern spec.

The bottom unit hasn't been upgraded yet.

Let me give you the sales pitch - this unit sounds so good!! The individual channels have a suble bigness but when submixed through the master channel it is a thing of beauty. It really deserves to have the upgrade completed and be used as a summing mixer as well as for recording in a quality studio.

It owes me nnnnn and that's all I'm after.

Photos:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/991 ... 0front.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/991 ... 20rear.jpg
brochure with specs etc:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9910326/AWA1970.pdf

by **mylesgm** » Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:58 pm

ok, I'm interested. what's the cost of the upgrade (roughly)?

by **EvLoutonian** » Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:10 pm

More-so just out of interest, could you describe the sound & performance of the bottom (un-modified) unit vs the top (modified) unit?

by **mylesgm** » Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:23 pm

hang on though, aren't the two units different topologies (valve/solidstate)? and therefore not really suitable for 8/2 use?

by **Drumstruck** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 9:20 am

Hi Gents,

Thanks for the enquiries - answers below:

Both units are identical - each unit is an independent 4->1 mixer. They are entitled "B" and "2B" to differentiate them within the chassis.

I got the top unit upgraded (by Rob) to see how good it would sound - that cost $911 on 11/01/2013.

The upgrade on the top unit included:
- direct outs for each of the 4 channels on XLRs
- phantom for the 4 channels
- phase reverse switch for each of the 4 channels
- pad switch for each of the 4 channels

The pad switches allow the top unit to be used as 4 independent line amps and as a 4-> summing mixer with a mix of line and/or mic inputs.

Both units sound the same with dynamic / ribbon mic inputs so I antipate they will sound the same with line and condensors after the bottom unit is upgraded.

Line level inputs to the top (upgraded) unit with the pad selected work fine and sound really nice and big but need to be used with discretion as they can overdrive - when output through the master the sound is awesome - it reminds me of the early 60s sound on songs like "Alfie".

Being a broadcast mixer the unit was designed for inputs from dynamic/ribbon mics + line level + telephone level of the time i.e. back in the 1950s - see the knob on the top right that was for selecting the input source.

See also the knob on the top right that selects off / AC / batt - this unit was also designed for use as a field unit and the bottom section is the battery chassis. Rob advised that the original batteries were pretty much unobtanium so we didn't bother with trying to get it working off batteries. I have since seen some of those batteries for sale in the U.S. recently so apparently they're still made - I don't know how viable it would be to bring it back to that spec.

As I said, I'll be sorry to part with this, but it just won't get used here and it deserves to be used.

cheers

by **mylesgm** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 9:43 am

So are they valve or solidstate? Seems unusual for them to be a mix of germanium and valve?

by **Drumstruck** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:15 am

Hi Myles

According to the .pdf I attached in post 1 (see the BAR-2 section) it's transistors and silicon rectifiers. When I pulled the back off a couple of years ago I thought I saw valves in aluminium tubes..... I'll take the cover off again and check.

Perhaps Rob could confirm if he's reading this? He's done a couple of these over the years.

cheers

by **EvLoutonian** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:21 am

I suspect the (tube shaped) silvery cans that you saw inside are the electrolytic capacitors mounted on the chassis.
(They can look quite similar to the shield covers they used to put on the smaller sized valves).
But this appears to be a solid state design throughout, as far as I can tell.

by **Sammas** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:23 am

Perhaps they are multi-section capacitors?

edit: whoops! beaten to the punch.

by **Drumstruck** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 12:13 pm

You may be right gents.

I just slid out the top (upgraded) unit from the chassis and there is a circuit board with regular (old) resistors etc on it. There were also little circuit boards with Rob's upgrades and XLR direct outs.

I couldn't see under the circuit board as there is a shield plate hiding the bottom half of the unit and I'm not wanting to dismantle it further for fear of opening that little box of smoke they hide inside electronic doovers......

So at this point I don't know what is under that board - hopefully Rob can chime in with some knowledge.

cheers

by **Chris H** » Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:52 pm

I have one of these, no valves but the germanium transistor topology is real nice with those big AWA transformers. Pushed into distortion on the input and gain the output down and they are great for dialing in smooth furry distortion on bass, snare or vox if that is what you are after, or gain them conservatively for clean fattness.
Mine, as I think all are +8 output so heaps of gain, great for low output mics like early ribbons. I use inline attenuators 10 dB or 20 dB on the output so i can drive them at their sweet spot and not overload the input of my A/D converters to splat land!
Mine don't have the direct outs so i use them as a single mic pre or for sub mixing to the one track
on my Otari 8 track. I won't say what mine owes me.

by **Drumstruck** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 9:04 am

Thanks for that info Chris - very much appreciated.

So there we have it - Germanium and no valves. I agree with everything Chris put so eloquently on the sound / drive of this unit.

My one has pads on each of the 4 channels in the top unit so they work for direct out and for the master out. fwiw I recommend getting Rob to do the same upgrade to the bottom unit.

Over to you buyers ;-)

by **Drumstruck** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 9:16 am

Price drop to SOLD plus freight.