Members bikehorn Posted September 27, 2007 Members Share Posted September 27, 2007 So today I was walking home from class and passed by a pawn shop around here. They had an unusually high number of audiophile grade home audio stuff, like a Carver Sonic Holography preamp and stuff...right in the middle of it was a Roland SIP-301 rackmount bass preamp. Has a built in compressor and crossover, and it seems like a good buy based just on that. the price was $149 and I'm sure I have some needless junk I could trade towards it. I've been looking for a preamp for a while as I want to DIY a power amp sometime, a massively overbuilt one. I thought about a SansAmp BDDI, but then I came across this, and it's cheaper plus it's local. How does this preamp sound? I don't want anything too sterile. Any reliability issues? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xbassman Posted September 27, 2007 Members Share Posted September 27, 2007 I had one back in the early 80's.... I bought it because it was the only bass pre I could find @ that time. It really doesn't give you a lot of tone shaping. I was much happier with the Peavey Mark IV I bought after my power amp caught fire! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted September 27, 2007 Members Share Posted September 27, 2007 ...after my power amp caught fire! Crown 300? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xbassman Posted September 27, 2007 Members Share Posted September 27, 2007 nope...Phase Linear I was sittin in with a metal band with a LOUD drummer. I kept turning up and then all of a sudden....no bass! When I turned around I saw flames shooting out between my power amp and pre. I felt fortunate that yanking the plug from the wall put it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted September 28, 2007 Members Share Posted September 28, 2007 nope...Phase Linear I was sittin in with a metal band with a LOUD drummer. I kept turning up and then all of a sudden....no bass! When I turned around I saw flames shooting out between my power amp and pre. I felt fortunate that yanking the plug from the wall put it out. Heh, I'd forgotten about those. They must have had no circuit protection on the output side cause they were fairly famous for going out in a blaze. We had some Crown 300's light up on us but they didn't have quite the reputation for it as those old phase linears did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bikehorn Posted September 28, 2007 Author Members Share Posted September 28, 2007 nope...Phase Linear I was sittin in with a metal band with a LOUD drummer. I kept turning up and then all of a sudden....no bass! When I turned around I saw flames shooting out between my power amp and pre. I felt fortunate that yanking the plug from the wall put it out. Ah yeah, Phase Linears...another Bob Carver design, unless you got one that was designed after he left Phase Linear. Good sound but apparently they were known to oscillate at ultra high frequencies which cooked the output transistors. Running it hard would definitely have brought the oscillation to a destructive level...which is too bad because a simple low-pass network on the output would have solved everything. I'm not dying for massive tone shaping, in fact I try to avoid heavy use of a graphic EQ...this one seems to have somewhat selectable range. How was th sound? and the DI? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JRoll Posted September 28, 2007 Members Share Posted September 28, 2007 I have had a SIP 301 for about 6 years now. Used it with a QSC USA850 and got great tone from it. The built in compression and EQ boosts got it dialed in. The DI is nice. Just got tired of lugging that big ass power amp, the Roland pre, and cabs so I stopped using it for gigs. I had it up for sale on here and had a few flakes say they were sending money orders and never did. $149 is a tad steep if you ask me. I was selling it for under a bill + shipping. Enjoy if you pick it up or let me know if you're interested in mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xbassman Posted September 28, 2007 Members Share Posted September 28, 2007 Ah yeah, Phase Linears...another Bob Carver design, unless you got one that was designed after he left Phase Linear. Good sound but apparently they were known to oscillate at ultra high frequencies which cooked the output transistors. Running it hard would definitely have brought the oscillation to a destructive level...which is too bad because a simple low-pass network on the output would have solved everything.I'm not dying for massive tone shaping, in fact I try to avoid heavy use of a graphic EQ...this one seems to have somewhat selectable range. How was th sound? and the DI? Well....@ that time I didn't have the greatest cabs.... They were custom built JBL design 1-15's loaded with PAS speakers. That said...my tone was kinda plain. It improved a bunch when I bought my Peavey. I thought the compressor sucked my tone as well, so I never used it.Really, IMO it is not even close to being in the same league as the pre built into my GK 400rb (BTW currently set flat) ($200 used) I would definitely try before you buy. Oh almost forgot... While I had it, I never used the DI. So I can't help ya there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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