Most recent impulse buy: Bogen MXM-A tube mixer. It seems very similar to an Altec 1567a in design and function, though I haven't taken the time to pour over the schematics to be certain.

Has anybody used one, or any Bogen gear? Impressions?

Details:

http://www.classicaudio.com/forsale/bogen.html

http://www.clarkhuckaby.com/BogenMod/MxmMain.html


If nothing else, the latter is an interesting read.

Thanks,
Brian

well, at 99 bucks.. man.. worth a shot .

My sentiments exactly.

What I'm really curious about is the transformers. I have some of the Altec Peerless I/O transformers that I used for DIY projects, and those are great. I wonder who made them for Bogen.

I've got a Bogen tube preamp that looks like a science project! I like it for bass, it's about the dirtiest mic pre I think I've ever plugged in. Tons and tons and tons of gain though, I wouldn't doubt it this baby's cranking out +80dB or better.

Honestly the only reason I bought it was it looks like a big freaky tube preamp, and everyone wants to know what in the hell it is. Sort of creates interest, but it will deliver some cool bass tracks.

War

I think maybe that when Warren bought his Bogen that I did some research. I actually accidentally bought it off of eBay and sent the guy some money to relist it. I got no idea how it happened. Warren ended up winning it on the second go around.

Anyhow, I seem to remember Bogen made public address stuff. So, I think this unit might be meant for public address in an office building. That's not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing as I think the Rane MS 1b was spec'ed for a similar application.

Hey I forgot about that, I think you did win it first! Well, you didn't really miss out on much in the end...it just looks freaky and I don't ever really reach for it.

War

i have a bogen 4 ch. tube mixer w/ input transformers, which i found to be a good aquisition for 40 dollars. the mic amps don't have alot of gain on mine. each ch. uses only 1/2 of a 12ax7. it does sound good though. i have tracked guitars and vocals through it. it needs some more tweaking maybe making it only a 2 ch. mic amp for proper gain levels by using a full tube per ch. i noticed each channels cathode was straight to ground like a mu amp without any resistor. any ways. it's fun to pull out once in a while for a different colour. it also has a powersection with a biult in speaker which distorts. very cool.

schape.

Hey Schape. That sounds very cool. I'm considering a similar mod to the MXM; Routing each channel through a another channel's tube to add a gain stage and an individual output.

In the MXM, all the channels go through a 12AX7 (both halves), then get summed together and make up gain is handled by a 12AT7 driving the output tranny. I'm thinking:

CH.1 -> CH.2 -> Output TX
CH.3 -> CH.4 -> Output TX
CH.5 -> 12AT7 -> Ouput TX

Maybe I'll change Ch. 2 and 4 to 12AT7s for a more reasonable gain range. Two AX7s is really too much.

Let me know if you mod yours, I'd love to know how it turns out.

N.B>: I got a "Blocked (Worm) Intruder" message from my AntiVirus progrom when I logged onto the classicaudio.com site on 3/25/6.

Paj
8^(


P.S.: I've given away a few of these Bogen's. Stock, they're great for saturation and that classic "Greyhound Bus Terminal" sound . . . These are the kind of tube amps that made solid-state popular.

Hey, sorry to hear that about the worm. I'll pull that link from the original post.

Yep, these are some woolly, scratchy old tube mixers. I used it to good effect on a vocal that needed a sort of Butthole surfers sound. Anyway, I still have a plan to clean up the channels, and go with a very basic design with more headroom and less gain. A simple half 12AX7 stage can go a long way. No need for several cascaded gain stages.