MN3005's

[masterlk]

Anybody ever try MN3005's from China, like in this link? Doing a search at this site returns lots of sellers. Some even accept paypal. I'm a noob so someone with more experience with these would have to do the looking into but if they were the real deal maybe a group purchase would be possible.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/607690181/Original_new_MN3005.html

[gtr2]

Most likely fakes...

[TNblueshawk]

+1 on the fakes...from someone who has been burned even by sellers who actually sell good ones too.

[badgerific]

I bought some off ebay from a seller who has reportedly given real chips but the ones I bought were fakes and paypal/ebay didn't refund my money which was a major bummer so be sure to do your homework even if you're using paypal.

[jimmybjj]

I bought some off ebay from a seller who has reportedly given real chips but the ones I bought were fakes and paypal/ebay didn't refund my money which was a major bummer so be sure to do your homework even if you're using paypal.

Which eBay seller? Why did paypal not refund?

[pickdropper]

Alibaba is always sort of a mixed bag and really geared towards higher volume purchasing.

So yeah, these are probably fakes.  Particularly since they can supply 10k of them per month.  :-)

[badgerific]

I bought some off ebay from a seller who has reportedly given real chips but the ones I bought were fakes and paypal/ebay didn't refund my money which was a major bummer so be sure to do your homework even if you're using paypal.

Which eBay seller? Why did paypal not refund?

Paulfreejazz or something along the lines of that but when he messaged me he used the email FunkwardTechnology. Which is another ebay user I found when looking for the ICs so I'd be careful with those two.

Paypal didn't really say, they just said they where siding with the seller and that I couldn't do anything else.

[stecykmi]

man i wish coolaudio would make a 3005 clone

[badgerific]

man i wish coolaudio would make a 3005 clone

How much chance do you think we'd have in asking coolaudio about it to see if we could possibly get them to make some?

[LaceSensor]

man i wish coolaudio would make a 3005 clone

How much chance do you think we'd have in asking coolaudio about it to see if we could possibly get them to make some?

People already have and its something like $40k or $20k just for their R and D costs.

[pickdropper]

man i wish coolaudio would make a 3005 clone

How much chance do you think we'd have in asking coolaudio about it to see if we could possibly get them to make some?

People already have and its something like $40k or $20k just for their R and D costs.

While a lot for a DIY community, that seems pretty cheap for the NRE (non-recurring engineering costs) on a chip design.  If it is really only that, I am surprised somebody like EH hasn't already jumped on that.

[midwayfair]

While a lot for a DIY community, that seems pretty cheap for the NRE (non-recurring engineering costs) on a chip design.  If it is really only that, I am surprised somebody like EH hasn't already jumped on that.

The better question is why someone like EHX would bother. That's a lot of money for even a corporation to spend if there are reasonable alternatives. "Sounds slightly better to a very small percentage of the population" is not a pressing need. Although I think a lot of cool things can come from a circuit that runs on 15v, the bottom line is that to get there people need a dedicated power supply or a charge pump. Neither is desirable and can lead to lost sales when your competitors are selling circuits that don't need them. "Tone" is not the most important selling point with most of the population, convenience and ease of use is. (Otherwise, we would have all had beta players when we were kids, not VCRs, and cassettes never would have made it out of development.) Charge pumps mean bigger circuit boards and a hard-to-replace part that can fail easily when fed too much or the wrong voltage (something that people who don't know any better do ALL THE TIME). I think the Malekko 616 demonstrates pretty well that you can get a fairly bright and quiet delay with plenty of headroom out of 3205 chips. EHX's newer Memory Man boxes sound pretty darn good, and most of the missing magic probably a lot more to do with lower voltage for the dry signal to play with. Even the Memory Boy sounds pretty good. Most people can't tell the difference in a blind shootout. Heck, many people can't tell the difference between a PT2399 delay and a bucket brigade delay.

I'm holding out hope that either the PT2399 will see massive improvement, or someone will find a spectacular way to harness the Cool Audio or other chips to create the next great delay. Digital is the future anyway. Sadly, it's very very difficult to convince the technology community to willfully move backward. There are just too many people who want something new to expect that much attention to be spent on recreating the past.

[pickdropper]

You make a number of valid points (in particular about the pt2399).

The interesting thing to me about EH is that have plenty of newer offerings but to me they've always appeared to hang onto their past as well.  It wouldn't shock me of they had an authentic MN3005 repro made and then marketed the hell out of a series of the original pedals built to original specs (which is a fairly popular approach with music gear).  It also wouldn't surprise me if they didn't bother.  As you say, there are plenty of options out there that will appeal to majority.

[Scruffie]

EHX still do use the 3008 & 3005 but on a, when we can't source them, that's it basis, which shows that it's only worth it to them to use what little remains than spend a fortune making new ones (which i'm sure people would say weren't as good as the originals anyway) through hole production is on the way out as it is so I think it's just too late as the equipment needed to make such a thing is phased out, plausible I suppose that some kind of SMD BBD could be produced but I doubt it, all this stuff (BBD, PT2399) came about mainly due to the japanese karaoke machine industry along with a few other products and I suspect they are moving in to the digital age as is the rest of the industry, pedals and especially DIY are a much smaller market than you'd expect. I think the only other company to produce BBDs other than cool audio is I think (don't hold me to this) MXR who produce an MN3204 clone and they're a pretty large company. I'd take what you can get while it's still here personally! Or buy one of the closing through hole factories.

[pickdropper]

I am really curious how the DIY community will transition as through-hole ICs and transistors are clearly on their way out.

Soldering SOIC and SOT type packages really isn't that terrible, but everybody really seems averse to them.  Of course, you can't easily socket them.