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  #31  
Old 01-20-2013, 05:30 PM
serio serio is offline
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Default Re: Black Lion OMNI Modification any good???

Yeah there's a subjective factor to it. I have an MK1 clock that makes enough of a difference that I'd rather mix with it than without it. But if i had my girlfriend or a buddy do an AB test they probably wouldn't even notice the difference. One man's "HUGE difference" is another man's "meh", when it comes to sound.
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  #32  
Old 01-21-2013, 10:01 AM
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Eric Seaberg Eric Seaberg is offline
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Default Re: Black Lion OMNI Modification any good???

I just had my MBox Pro 3 done, as well as purchased their word clock master, and they're both GREAT!

Makes me feel better about my MBox and not quite as covetous over MetricHalo or SonicStudio anymore.
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  #33  
Old 05-17-2013, 12:19 AM
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zedhed zedhed is offline
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Default Re: Black Lion OMNI Modification any good???

Quote:
Originally Posted by Infiltrator View Post
100% Irrelevant to the theme of scientific facts being presented in this topic regarding performance specs of hardware. Thanks for nothing.
No....Thank you for nothing; The scientific facts presented are 100% irrelevant unless they're put into the context of 100% complete highest quality audio environment, which in relevance most likely equates to 2 or 3% of us.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Infiltrator View Post
And is there a noticeable enough imporvement to warrant getting either of the mods offered?
In most hobbyists rigs....probably not.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Infiltrator View Post
And does avid still warranty and support the unit after this mod?
I think you'll find that practically all electronic equipment manufacturers void the warranty once their unit has been opened up, unless it's been done by themselves or an authorized entity.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Infiltrator View Post
Is it worth doing this?
For me to make a decision on whether to Mod or not would depend on what other gear I had around the piece of gear I was modding and my objectives on what I was trying to achieve. If one upgrades a piece of kit, then one needs to move forward and improve the next piece of kit, otherwise what's the point. Any system is only as good as its weakest link.

If I was that serious about having the absolute best rig available, then I would buy the best gear available in the first place.

So does a guy who sits at home doing this as a hobby need the absolute best? IMHO, I don't think so. But if someone is earning a living off their gear, then that's a different story.

But if money is no obstacle...or you want to become a true audiophile then just go for broke & buy gear that doesn't need to be modified.

I understand the pitfalls of being a gear junkie though, I'm a recovering addict! Again, IMHO I believe it's the addicts (for the most part) companies like BLA cater to because like drugs, they/we are a lucrative demographic target and there's no better hook than a bunch of nice juicy 'scientific facts' for us to inject. And lets face it, once we've spent good $$ on our addiction we have to believe it's money well spent whether it actually is or not. Indeed we are then compelled to 'Spread the word' at how good the 'fix' we bought is. Now that's why I believe companies like BLA do so well; Because they understand this in a marketing context. They've simply identified demographics & created a niche market for themselves & as far as business goes good on them, it's capitalism at it's best.

And testament to my point of view;
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Seaberg View Post
Makes me feel better about my MBox and not quite as covetous over MetricHalo or SonicStudio anymore.
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Last edited by zedhed; 10-19-2021 at 03:52 PM.
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  #34  
Old 10-16-2021, 07:57 AM
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Billair Billair is offline
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Default Re: Black Lion OMNI Modification any good???

Quote:
Originally Posted by Infiltrator View Post
Actually I am still debating this.. Black Lion responded with after I shared some general industry opinions on Avid's hardware differences and similarities wih the older Digidesign hardware.

They explained to me that they can modify the Omni in a very beneficial way for me in which i will notice a difference because they say they can offer significant improvement to the clocking, analog path, and conversion processes. They claim to have have technology that is considerably better than what Avid offers in its stock units. As an example, they told me to take a look at their in house converter designs-- they say that few companies come close in terms of measured clock jitter and converter dynamic range.

They told me to compare designs that use the AK5394 converter-- they pretty much everyone gets about 115dB dynamic range out of it, yet they say they get 120dB unweighted, and that it's why Mutt Lange, Alison Krauss, Mike Shipley, Butch Walker, and Tony Maserati use BLA converters. They claim to offer advancements in technology that no one else has, and they claim that the difference is clearly audible.

They said that while the Omni has a great feature set, and has higher dynamic range conversion than something like the Profire 2626, they would not consider the clock "world class" (because I asked them if it is world class as people have been saying). They said it's the same clock that Digi used in the Mbox, 002, 003, 96IO, and HD boxes and that Measured jitter at the converter is typically around 20-50 nanoseconds, which has huge spikes that reach nearly 1 microsecond in the critical 1Hz and 10Hz bands. They said to compare this to the clocks that they can install-- such as the SP clock offers about 3-4 picoseconds of jitter at the converter, and the new XB clock which offers output jitter in the femtosecond range. They claimed that I will absolutely hear the difference between their clock and the stock Omni clock.

They then told me that there are some myths surrounding the Omni regarding conversion and a misconception from an improvement in the D/A and not the A/D. That A/D converter used in the Omni is the same A/D converter family found in the 003 (the CS53xx family of A/D chips) - in that it would a step down from the A/D chips used in the old blue HD boxes. And they told me to note that Avid specs the A/D dynamic range about 1dB lower than what the blue HD boxes offered.

They then explained that the D/A converter is based around a Texas Instruments PCM17xx DAC, which is the one converter component that's an improvement over what Digi was doing in the blue HD boxes.

They suspect that since the new boxes "sound better" on the D/A side than the old boxes did, everyone assumes there's a global improvement in the new designs' converter performance. But they say it's not quite so.

Anyway, they just told me that its merely their perspective, and to let them know if I have any other questions, and then to have a great day.

And hence my reason for coming back here with this scientific data given to me by Black Lion and am wondering what the response is now to this data and if an Avid representative also wants to chime in on verifying any of the information given to me about the Omni.

i had bla do their signature series mod done to my 002 and it was night and day when i first plugged it in and ran it through my system, the system i use every day, it was tighter and cleaner, i’m gonna do my hd omni too i think, my music store guy says aw there’s good interfaces out there now i should look at but use to my omni and don’t wanna change computers or software / buy cables etc
gonna send mine off soon i hope

don’t listen to these cheap ****s


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  #35  
Old 10-19-2021, 03:44 PM
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Default Re: Black Lion OMNI Modification any good???

Quote:
Originally Posted by Billair View Post
and it was night and day

it was tighter and cleaner,



Wow this thread is a necro-bump, and dug out of the grave after so long for such an professional 'review'.


It's also very interesting to note; that after almost 9 years since this thread was started (with 26,000 views), not one person who has had the mod done has given a proper review.

LAUGHING MY ****ING ASS OFF!
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Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 AERO D
CPU: Intel Alder Lake Core i9-12900K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB (2x 32gb 5200MHz)
Drives: 2 x Samsung 980 Pro 2TB NVME PCIE 4.0 M.2 SSD (Record & Samples)
1 x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB NVME PCIE 4.0 M.2 SSD (OS Win 11 Pro)

GPU:Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 PCIE 4
PSU: Corsair HX Series HX850 Platinim
CASE: Fractal Define XL R2
PT 11HD (v11.3.2) Omni s/pdif <> AxeFxIII
HD 96I/O

Last edited by zedhed; 10-19-2021 at 04:00 PM.
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  #36  
Old 10-19-2021, 06:32 PM
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EGS EGS is offline
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Default Re: Black Lion OMNI Modification any good???

Quote:
Originally Posted by zedhed View Post
Wow this thread is a necro-bump...
Ha! Had to look that one up!
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  #37  
Old 10-19-2021, 06:42 PM
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Default Re: Black Lion OMNI Modification any good???

I would not do this.

However I understand the excitement of modifying gear. I have a SPL Charisma8 which I blew one tube ten years ago. Did some research and got specs from SPL, then ordered two kinds of tubes, four and four, to give it two kinds of slightly different sound. And still have the original seven working tubes available if needed.

But that is different, nothing else was modded except changing the tubes.
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