[Eeyore]

A while back I posted in aapl-s about a Midas Venice 240 I was refurbing
for a client that mainly just involved replacing some noisy /
intermittent pots and faders. The owner wanted to sell it on to help
fund the A&H GL2400 he had replaced it with (far superior IMHO). It's my
local venue I always help out btw and have done for 15 years, installing
their very first 'semi-pro' system. Next week, it's a DSP speaker
controller going in fully active 3 way.

R.a.p posters won't previously be aware of this so that's just to bring
them up to speed.

What can I say ? The construction of the mixer was 'perverse' to say the
least. Reminiscent of the work of Escher, Sader-Masoch and Tinguely (see
Wikipedia). Making dismantling a serious issue in itself. I decided in
the end to do an almost complete dismantle so every part could be
accessed. Having replaced the identified faulty pots etc, the
re-assembly was even worse. Quite how they manage to do it at Dynacord I
cannot tell but every cable is cut to the minimum possible length and
it's more like a jigsaw puzzle than anything else. The very last cable
can only be inserted with the mixer panel mere inches from the chassis.

To make it even worse they have used nasty cheap connectors unlike the
usual 0.05" box header types that you find in PCs. They are especially
vulnerable and the slightest knock will sever one end of the latching
mechanism making them less secure.

Anyway - after all this 'faffing about' I finally got it re-assembled
today only to find that the 48V phantom power and desk lamp supplies
were working but not the main +/- 16V ! I did the usual removal of
connections to sub-assemblies that might have a short (although I was
100% convinced I had been extremely careful not to do such a thing),
leaving only the central section connected. Still no +/- 16V. Probing
across a conveniently placed op-amp showed no power line short.

So, maybe the PSU's gone too ?

One thing for sure, this desk would have been deemed BER (beyond
economic repair) by the UK agent and I was only really doing this as a
favour to the club owner. I will say that Shuttlesound were excellent in
supplying replacement spares at no cost however (which was kind of them)
and Bruce at Shuttlesound is very helpful.

Nevertheless, From all I have seen, I MUST suggest to ALL audio pros
*never* to invest in a Midas Venice. It is the most expensive in its
class yet is dismally designed. Enough said. I would recommend A&H
though.

I hope Midas can redeem their act sometime.


Graham