Audio Proz Service and Sales

In Defense of Behringer The lawsuits filed against Behringer for supposed “copying” of other manufacturers’ devices are frivolous. Boss sued for copying the shape and color or a guitar stomp box, not for the design content. Behringer’s product was far superior and used modern DSP technology which Boss had not even achieved yet. Mackie also sued over the shape and color of a product. Meanwhile, many Mackie products are sol...

The boards are adapted to as close of input impedance match as possible when ordered (and noted on website). Many boards 210, 201A 202 etc. are very similar but differ in subtle ways because M.C. cartridge designs (even same models) varied in performance, especially in low frequency "equalization" and output level. We at APT tried to keep up with this matter and attempted to calibrate each card to within +/- 1db at 50hz (...

People tend to hate me when I tell them this, but really now, Behringer & Zoom (among a few others) are actually the leaders of guitar effect processing technology. I like TC electronic (which is actually I.V.L. Designs) and I can always order their stuff in for customers (TC G-Major/Minor), but nearly equivalent product can be had with the Behringer V-amp bass modeler for about $200. You will be amazed. I’m in the positi...

We get many letters and phone calls asking about certain high dollar audiophile gear, which all basically boil down to - does this unit do what they claim it does?

Many manufacturers make remarkable claims of amazing fidelity. Are these electronic designs capable of revealing or creating more lifelike imaging or depth of detail when amplifying pre-recorded music? Does the use of super special capacitors, wiring, and conn...

The butyl used for textile surround restoring that has been recommended online appears to be somewhat problematic. First being that it is sticky, too sticky in my opinion – it’s attracting debris of any kind and accumulating on the surround. Large debris might actually cause some buzzing when vibrated. Another issue is the butyl treatment if allowed to get on the edge of textile where the cone is glued to the textile or t...

I have written this letter many times before, here it goes. Bellari 282 had two ways it could be releases to public and operated. One way is as a true volume gain limiter, as it looks at signal after the compressor circuit making the compressor gain ride it’s own “Audio tracking level”. This can really, make the audio squashed because the threshold control actually works like old school design. It advances CCW into low si...

I'll try to make it quick (haha). The simple fact is almost all of these new supposed monitor speakers are Chinese pre-designed platform products with different cosmetics for different markets and price points. I see the same product at $300, $600, or $900 & they all suffer from the same issues: false bass tuning (humpy, bumpy, boxy, etc.) and incorrect and simple crossovers into tweeters to make them sound zippy, forward...

To be honest, although I play guitar, many guitars and many variations of pickups and strings which make big differences no doubt, a bigger issue is that all these fancy amps really share very common similar designs (ie the tube circuits actually are more similar than truly unique to each design). Really what is different (what you hear is different) are simple different equalization (like having a little 7 band equalizer...

Concerning transformer use. Interesting, wonderful but brutally simple transformer designs, in many vintage products do create a nice, slightly “warm” sonic color but there are modern products which can do the same sound trick but without the high expense and use of rare parts. First be aware of the +24dbm maximum operating level (transformers or sound state) used in real pro signal level designs do not mate perfectly wit...

Chinese mics (and their boutique relabeled versions) almost all suffer from the same problems. In fact, AKG, Neumann, and many other big name manufacturers do not design their own internal power supplies, shielding, grounding, and RFI protection well enough. Now with today's super sensitive mic elements with high gain circuitry, and more radio frequencies emanating from computers and cell phones, such shortcomings can app...

It seems people are constantly asking about modifying machines by changing out op amps. Most recently on a TNE 7000 Noise Reduction unit which we do modify (see Services section) but not by changing out the op amps for more updated, better paper-rated versions. Ironically, “better” op amps will actually work worse in the circuit due to the need for correct DC offset and time phase, delay required at 4 stage all pass filte...

Wow, new cutting edge construction designed ribbon mics are now here. Although the wave of quality, large plate condenser mics has saturated the market and for many recordists who have an open mind, great benefits of cost to performance are welcome. Ribbon mics however will not be easy to make inexpensively and correctly. This is because the design criteria for ribbons are ironically more archaic and tough to build with c...

The DBX Sub Harmonic Synthesizer was truly an amazing unit, though they are getting hard to find. I owned one years ago, then used an ‘expounder’. Did 4 bands of dynamic EQ as well. Clever auto filter effect and 4 bands of parametric EQ. Now I use a Behringer DEQ-2496 multiband adjustable dynamic EQ, compressor or expander and 5 band digital parametric and 11 band EQ, and real time high sensitivity spectrum analyzer and d...

So now, onto a most delicate subject: the psychology of hearing. Keep in mind that I have been speaking to customers for the past 25 years. All the way back to cassette decks, reel to reels, turntables, CD and DVD players, to modern computer recording systems. I think there is a tremendous ambiguity to the question 'what truly is the best sound?' What is the standard reference playback device? Who has the book on real con...

Please take a minute to read these basic guidelines, as we are a small shop and do things a little differently than some larger corporate chain-marketing-type businesses. We can serve you better by ensuring that the following is understood.

** Buying from Audio Pro: **
We carry a wide variety of audio equipment and parts. While we strive to keep our online database up-to-date, it is not automated and does not always refle...

There is an old expression which might be appropriate here but not necessarily truly my philosophy “don’t say anything unless you can say something nice”. Ironically this applies to friends and acquaintances but when talking about audio, electronics, etc. saying something bad, whether true or not can get a lot of people irked or worse a lawsuit from a megalomaniac electronics company. This is a reason why a negative criti...

I know that many people will debate me when I tell them that I have encountered far too many "supposed" esoteric, expensive, fancy cabinet design speakers and gimmicky speaker designs to be extremely lacking in regards to phase accuracy, or at least having reasonably wide frequency response or dynamic linearity to be accurate enough to honestly judge the “supposed” attributes of special capacitors, resistors, wire, or wha...

I have a love/hate relationship with these Nakamichi models. These units unfortunately suffer in performance with age and use. They use a sophisticated and complicated power supply and computer chip, but the audio circuitry is very basic, standard Japanese design used in many better quality designs like Adcom, Rotel, JVC, Denon, and Yamaha. Some people are under the impression that it’s a special class A design or STASIS ...

(a letter to a customer)

Thank you for your inquiry on the Edison EX1

The Edison is an audio processing device designed to enhance, correct, or remix stereo program material of any type or from any format. It is especially useful and shows it’s capabilities astonishingly on vintage music, or most music which came before the digital era.

First off it is truly a stereo processing device which operates purely in the analog d...

By Vince (Shop Owner)

To start off, I would like to say that I am a technically knowledgeable person (as opposed to purely sales oriented imagination) who has been working with pro and consumer equipment for over 25 years. I have worked with engineers of audio equipment, I have headed service departments for hifi companies such as HH Scott, Apt, KLH, and have been running an electronic repair/sales shop for about 20+ year...