VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[KaseyKruz]

Bought this...coming today...
http://www.aphex.com/aphex-products/channel/
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Does life start at 40?

[Bill Campbell]

I love Aphex products. Looks perfect for VO. Look forward to your review.
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www.asapaudio.com

[DougVox]

I've been thrilled with the Aphex 230 Master Voice Channel I've had in my studio for the last 3 years or so.
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Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

[KaseyKruz]

To be honest, I'm not highly impressed. First, it's a Chinese tube in a 1000 dollar machine. Second, the craftsmanship is a little lacking ( the lid to get to the tube has the screw holes off center by quite a bit causing binding issues when removing and replacing the screws).
As for the unit- I can dial in the sound and it sounds pretty good. I actually matched the tone and compression of my current setup. The biggest problem was the preamp noise. I couldn't get rid of the slight hiss in the line no matter what I tried. I did find that TRS cables were quieter than XLR from the output. With the hiss present, I couldn't get the gate to sound right. I could dial out the hiss but then I would lose some subtle nuances and natural sound of my speaking voice. I could hear the gate opening and closing despite the claim that aphex says was supposed to be undetectable. I think if they had put in a better expander it would have been a bit easier to dial in. Believe it or not, I like the way my Behringer Autocom sounds coupled to an Aphex 204. I use an Art Project series tube amp with a Tung Sol tube and it actually is a bit quieter and sounds better and more natural (to me anyway). My main bread is from news reporting so I leave in the breaths which the Aphex Channel had a tendency to cut off when I had the gate set to an acceptable range. I just didn't like hearing the gate open and close. I spent more than 12 hours playing with the box trying to find the sweet spot, but just couldn't get there no matter how I turned the knobs.
I could have tried some new cables and a better tube I suppose, but spending what I did on the box, I had nothing left for extras.
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Does life start at 40?

[Dayo]

Jim Williams is a top guy when it comes to Aphex gear. I'm thinking that maybe he could suggest/carry out a couple of upgrades to bring the unit into acceptable spec.

http://www.audioupgrades.com/
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Colin Day - UK Voiceover
www.thurstonday.co.uk

[KaseyKruz]

Thanks Dayo. Rather than try to justify spending a grand on the unit that gets similar quality as my current setup, I have decided to return the unit and explore other options. I may upgrade all my cables at a fraction of the cost of the Aphex and see how that works out.
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Does life start at 40?