It's been a long time since I posted anything on WBF.
Recently I had a run-in with Fred at ATAE and thought to share with this group.
Had a call from Dave Collins, Grammy winning mastering engineer at the Dave Collins Mastering in LA. He asked me if I wanted two of his Studer A820s that were originally from A&M Studios (Dave was the chief mastering engineer at A&M). Many of you know I have never met Studers I didn't like. So we discussed what he had. Dave told me some of the well known artists such as U2 and Eagles member albums were made using these machines and didn't want someone to buy them and flip them on ebay. I told him I have been known to hold on to them (closer to be hoarding).
Make the long story short, I flew down to LA and met the machines and liked them. Rented a pickup truck to haul them back up to Seattle. It all went well. One was 1/4" 2 track with (1/2" change parts) completely stock and the other A820 was an ATAE remanufactured 1/2" playback only transport. Dave told me there was a tech at A&M who would check out and calibrate the machines in the morning and would do it again in the afternoon for the late evening sessions everyday.
As you see in the photo, the ATAE A820 didn't have a VU meterbridge in normal ATAE configuration. Fred removes VU meterbridges on his A80 and A820 remanufactured machines for higher performances. Furthermore, when I opened the card cage door, I noticed there were no Audio Basis Board. A820 has a basis board for basic transport control and another one for audio. As a pure transport, all things related to audio including the cards, digital and analog coax cable assemblies were removed as a part of improved performance.
For my use, I wanted to restore the playback only A820 into a part stock machine that can record as well as state-of-art playback performer with its own internal electronics and also to drive an external tapehead preamp. So the first part of the project was to gather all A820 parts that were missing on ATAE machine. The hardest item to locate is the Audio Basis Board. Audiohouse didn't have them anymore and anyone who would have it would be Fred. Thus, I contacted Fred.
He was cordial asking me how things were in PNW and pleasant. However when I inquired about the Audio Basis Board, he replied that the parts inventory is for ATAE projects and he doesn't sell to general public. In addition, he had expressed his negative opinion about me or any other non-experts working with Studers, and I understood his position. I explained to Fred that I was not in a business of repairing and selling machines. It's always been a hobby that had gone out of hand... He asked for the ATAE machine's serial number and responded with short history of the machine being custom built per specification provided by Dave Collins and wasn't sold to A&M. He showed interested in my other A820s.
He then asked me to send him the card cage with transport Basis Board. Considering one of Fred's top machines goes for around $250K, before I tear the card cage out from the machine I asked him if he could tell me the approximate cost for him to supply the Audio Basis Board and associated cable assemblies. His answer was he would do it for me at no charge...
And he did. After three days of sending the partial A820 card cage down to ATAE, I received a complete card cage with both transport and audio basis PCBs installed and all its associated cable assemblies in the box.
I must say I was ecstatic with excitement and my jaw dropped when I opened the box. I know Fred has reputation of being too steadfast and stubborn about Studers and sometime it rubs Audiophiles the wrong way. However my recent experience with Fred and ATAE, I can confirm Fred is a gentleman, and his heart is in the right place. If the cost is
no object and you can't or don't want to deal with repairs, ATAE Model One and Two are highly recommended. Ki
Recently I had a run-in with Fred at ATAE and thought to share with this group.
Had a call from Dave Collins, Grammy winning mastering engineer at the Dave Collins Mastering in LA. He asked me if I wanted two of his Studer A820s that were originally from A&M Studios (Dave was the chief mastering engineer at A&M). Many of you know I have never met Studers I didn't like. So we discussed what he had. Dave told me some of the well known artists such as U2 and Eagles member albums were made using these machines and didn't want someone to buy them and flip them on ebay. I told him I have been known to hold on to them (closer to be hoarding).
Make the long story short, I flew down to LA and met the machines and liked them. Rented a pickup truck to haul them back up to Seattle. It all went well. One was 1/4" 2 track with (1/2" change parts) completely stock and the other A820 was an ATAE remanufactured 1/2" playback only transport. Dave told me there was a tech at A&M who would check out and calibrate the machines in the morning and would do it again in the afternoon for the late evening sessions everyday.
As you see in the photo, the ATAE A820 didn't have a VU meterbridge in normal ATAE configuration. Fred removes VU meterbridges on his A80 and A820 remanufactured machines for higher performances. Furthermore, when I opened the card cage door, I noticed there were no Audio Basis Board. A820 has a basis board for basic transport control and another one for audio. As a pure transport, all things related to audio including the cards, digital and analog coax cable assemblies were removed as a part of improved performance.
For my use, I wanted to restore the playback only A820 into a part stock machine that can record as well as state-of-art playback performer with its own internal electronics and also to drive an external tapehead preamp. So the first part of the project was to gather all A820 parts that were missing on ATAE machine. The hardest item to locate is the Audio Basis Board. Audiohouse didn't have them anymore and anyone who would have it would be Fred. Thus, I contacted Fred.
He was cordial asking me how things were in PNW and pleasant. However when I inquired about the Audio Basis Board, he replied that the parts inventory is for ATAE projects and he doesn't sell to general public. In addition, he had expressed his negative opinion about me or any other non-experts working with Studers, and I understood his position. I explained to Fred that I was not in a business of repairing and selling machines. It's always been a hobby that had gone out of hand... He asked for the ATAE machine's serial number and responded with short history of the machine being custom built per specification provided by Dave Collins and wasn't sold to A&M. He showed interested in my other A820s.
He then asked me to send him the card cage with transport Basis Board. Considering one of Fred's top machines goes for around $250K, before I tear the card cage out from the machine I asked him if he could tell me the approximate cost for him to supply the Audio Basis Board and associated cable assemblies. His answer was he would do it for me at no charge...
And he did. After three days of sending the partial A820 card cage down to ATAE, I received a complete card cage with both transport and audio basis PCBs installed and all its associated cable assemblies in the box.
I must say I was ecstatic with excitement and my jaw dropped when I opened the box. I know Fred has reputation of being too steadfast and stubborn about Studers and sometime it rubs Audiophiles the wrong way. However my recent experience with Fred and ATAE, I can confirm Fred is a gentleman, and his heart is in the right place. If the cost is
no object and you can't or don't want to deal with repairs, ATAE Model One and Two are highly recommended. Ki
