Fantastic! Pleased it worked
Yes, very strange and counter intuitive!
Yes that is what I did. With a pseudo balanced cable wired like that the power supply noise on the channel was worse than the unbalanced cable with the synth off (I could hear it even with the gain turned all the way down) but better than the unbalanced cable when the synth was on (I could only hear the power supply noise with gain near max). This is testing with a subsequent 37.
I agree with rklem, something about the balanced IOs on the big six seems different
I never noticed much difference or had any trouble using balanced or unbalanced cables + gear with previous mixers and interfaces, but can say I noticed similar things with the small SiX
OK, so I tried both an XP Power ALM120PS24 and a Delta MDS-090AAS24 BA power supply. Both are much quieter than the original Fidus one. There is no obvious power supply noise with either of these, and just a slight hum with the channel gain cranked near max (which would probably blow my ears or speakers out if I actually played a note on a synth with it like that). The XP power one might be slightly quieter than the Delta, but it also has a really short chunky cord which is annoying.
SSL also got back in touch with me and had me a do a few more troubleshooting things and I will post an update here with anything I find out.
So the new PSU removes issues with unbalanced inputs?
Well, I mean, itās not optimal having to buy a new power supply and I wish there were not any issues with unbalanced synths in the first place and that there was not any hum left at allā¦
But there are not any other quality mixers with the features and routing options this one has for less than $10k. And if that is just the way this mixer is and is not a problem specific to mine and a few other peoples then it is what it is I guess. I rather buy a $60 power supply than $2000 in DI boxes or something for all my synths.
I also wish synth makers would just add $1 to the cost of making a synth and have balanced ins and outs on them FFS.
Iām interested to hear what SSL has to say at the end of all this.
Thanks
I feel the impetus here is on SSL at this price point (and reputation) to make a product that works with the full gammut of gear. One thing is new gear - but especiall loads of vintage gear is unbalanced
And at the very least not shipping a noisy PSU with a $3k mixer
Hey got the Delta today and can confirm that itās much quieter. If I cranked everything before I would get this kinda Apocalypse Now helicopter sound that the Delta got rid of.
Maybe we can get SSL to give us some free plugins in exchange for the bad supplies/time wastedā¦ haha.
Edit: also, thanks again for the tip.
Reading this thread, itās impossible to know if the Big SiX is just a mess of a sloppy product or fantastic. Itās like going to this forum and trying to decide if Overbridge is just a crash-ridden bug festival or amazingly stable and overall great.
Iām not kidding, Iām eyeing the Big Six and Iām reading this thread and thinking, no way I can go for this. It seems like a noise disaster with about average converters at that.
And Iām on a regular SiX with a Zoom H1n+ as a recording interface.
Itās only 3K youāre spending during a pandemic with limited Quality Control on the factory floor.
What could go wrong!
Yeah, Iām not getting one. Doing fine with the SiX as is, anyway.
Same here. Feature-wise it looks fantastic and I was fully in to get one of these when I saw the announcement. But now for sure Iāll wait some months to see where this is goingā¦
Just wondering how they could not notice such issues themselves.
Or if itās such a big deal. I canāt tell, not being an engineer myself. Also, my music has lots of noise and crackles going on, so Iād probably just sample it anyway and label it under āflavourā
Iām also thinking, in my particular case, I just donāt think my music will get any better with a 12 channel mixer, even if itās awesome. Thereās some workflow enhancements to be had with the Big Six in my case, such as losing the Zoom for example and more control over sound image and sculpting, but the real workflow struggle for me is what comes before - the composition, creating of content that goes into it, that hassle. Thatās where the ārightā kit could make a big difference.
So itās easier for me to disregard this, since that part of the process wasnāt all that broken to begin with.
Well Iām happy for the people who jumped on the train early, that getting another power supply seems to solve the issues.
But still I find this annoying when paying already 3k and it makes me worry a bit about the overall quality.
Same. I bought some iLoud MTMs last year, and they had a buzz+whine thanks to bad power supplies. Apparently it was a know issue with one manufacturing run.
In that case, the supplies were built in, so no fix. I was surprised that IK didnāt pull the entire batch. I sent them back, got some Genelecs, and will probably never buy IK again (still love my O.G iLoud tho).
Completely agreed, it looks like this PSU issue is common enough that SSL should have noticed right away. Also, itās not a difficult problem to solve, just swap the PSU out, or ask your distributors to do so. And, it would not hurt SSL if they communicated about it. They should at least say whether the original PSU poses any electrical/fire/equipment-damage hazards. That noise means that the PSU is pushing some current through ground, which, it is not supposed to do, and is a symptom of a potentially bigger problem.
Making innovative products is risky, and issues are expected (like e.g. the DC-offset), but, I donāt understand how they can make such a well-though-out and refined device, and at the same time make such beginner mistakes as not checking the PSU and not communicating properly ā¦
I want to give SSL the benefit of the doubt. Itās possible they tested and found the power supply to meet their needs, only to have a later production batch run into issues they were unaware of.
But I agree and hope they are able to get some communication on this once the facts become clear.
I appreciate those doing the testing and finding solutions in the interim. My BiG SiX should arrive any day now and I have a variety of balanced and unbalanced gear that will be fed into the mixer.