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CBS Volumax 4300

H

HadYourPhil

Anyone have a manual for this guy? I'm not familiar with this one, but it appears to be from the mid-70's. Still "CBS Labs" at the time it was made.
 
Wahh! I want a 1965 CBS labs Volumax! What a great trrip through the audio processing history!
Never did see the schematic for anything, though.....
Love the various topography/circuitry shots.

I'm also desirous of that 1960 very simple RCA mono console. If I can't buy one, that's about what I need to build.
I have 2 nice black phenolic (almost bakelite) panels and one or two super-deco simpson meter movements......
And I have ONE RCA big Knob to model repro's from.
 
amfmsw said:
I'd like to build a pair of Sta-Levels. (sans the 0B3) No more mercury, thank you.
Click to expand...
You better buy a 6836 tube before they exceed black-market kidney prices (they're close now). I have a couple that are destined for a Sta-Level project as well. I just parted with a couple Gates SA-39's two weeks ago - hated to give them up, but the restoration cost, coupled with the heft and size made them a no-go for my studio work. I also had a tube, Audimax that was in great shape - sold that on Ebay about 1-yr too early :'(. Needless to say, I love old broadcast limiters!
-D
 
amfmsw said:
volumax: http://www.waltzingbear.com/Schematics/CBS/400_Volumax.htm

audimax: http://www.waltzingbear.com/Schematics/CBS/Audimax_444.htm

Gates, RCA and others: http://www.waltzingbear.com/Schematics/CBS/Audimax_444.htm

I'd like to build a pair of Sta-Levels. (sans the 0B3) No more mercury, thank you.
Click to expand...

In the '60s, I built a Sta-Level clone for the processing chain at our college's AM carrier current station. It's a very nice-sounding compressor (probably the nicest sounding audio processor Harris/Gates ever made), an impression reinforced by my hearing one fairly recently.

Bob Orban
 
rorban said:
In the '60s, I built a Sta-Level clone for the processing chain at our college's AM carrier current station. It's a very nice-sounding compressor (probably the nicest sounding audio processor Harris/Gates ever made), an impression reinforced by my hearing one fairly recently.

Bob Orban
Click to expand...
Bob, I double-dog dare you (or Frank or Scott for that matter) to incorporate some vari-mu glass into the front-end of a proc ;). In recording, I really like to hang a sloppy, analog limiter (Manley or Sta-Level preferably) across the mix buss. A touch of GR there really goes a long way in "fattening" the mix.
-D
 
dtube1 said:
rorban said:
In the '60s, I built a Sta-Level clone for the processing chain at our college's AM carrier current station. It's a very nice-sounding compressor (probably the nicest sounding audio processor Harris/Gates ever made), an impression reinforced by my hearing one fairly recently.

Bob Orban
Click to expand...
Bob, I double-dog dare you (or Frank or Scott for that matter) to incorporate some vari-mu glass into the front-end of a proc ;). In recording, I really like to hang a sloppy, analog limiter (Manley or Sta-Level preferably) across the mix buss. A touch of GR there really goes a long way in "fattening" the mix.
-D
Click to expand...

More realistic would be to ask for tube emulation in a DSP based processor. Tubes=maintenance problems, eventually.

Generally, tubes also require transformers, which can be a really weak point, fidelity-wise. But, noting the "CBS Volumax 4300" heading, I guess we weren't really talking about fidelity, were we? ;)

Kind Regards,
David
 
If Bob's ears, Tom's trained ears and my ears hear a differenece, there's a difference. I found a Gates unit in the bottom of a closet at an AM station I worked in the early 80's. After replacing (yes,,servicing) the 6V6 with a matched pair (wow, that was hard), the station came alive with unmatched legal audio. It truly jumped out of the speaker in the car. I added an old EQ after the Gates, and it just sang, despite a bizzare 4 tower array.

I had phones from engineers at other stations asking what I did. They laughed at me. There is a warmth that only tubes can give audio. Ask any McIntosh / Marantz vintage owner. When overdriven, transistors turn a sine wave to a sawtooth or square wave. A proper tube design just "rounds it out". The tube let's you fit 10 pounds of crap into a 9 pound bag, when done right.

All that being said, I still wanted an Optimod AM, I just didn't know it. Bob wasn't making them yet!
 
Luckily I have located a manual from a Canadian engineer who has a streaming station called 590/CKEY. And, he's using a Sta-Level in front of a 4300. Not my choice of audio chains, but interesting nonetheless. I prefer the Audimax III/Volumax 400 combo.
I have to agree with Bob. A Sta-Level is a smooth box! Like that two-stage recovery time.
At my first station (WBLT) in my home town, the original chain was a Sta-Level feeding an SA-39. I'd crank the Sta-Level all the way up and set the SA-39's recovery time switch to '1'. And, a secret tweak... turn the 'meter zero' pot until the meter pinned. That changes the bias on the 6L7's (?) (I just realized I don't have a schematic for the SA-39 I recently literally trash-picked!) and speeds up the SA-39 a little more.
Would love to find a Sta-Level, or for that matter, a Level Devil (which I do have a book for), but they've become awfully pricey.
 
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