Black Lion style mods, UK ?

[Matt Darcy]

I'm using Digidesign Rack 003 and Rack + 003 audio interfaces.

I read with huge interest for years about the quality updates the Black Lion mods do to these units.
I'm keen to try something like this with at least one of my rack 003's however the cost of shipping a unit to the USA / Buying the upgrades / shipping it back / import fee's and insurance value due to upgrade value is quite high.

As there must be UK/EU users in here, I was wondering if there was any UK based people that did the same/similar upgrades to the rack 003 as black lion in the USA ?

[Darryl Ramm]

Why don't you just buy a modern high-quality interface? The 003 is long in the tooth. And how long will they be supported for by Avid with drivers etc.?

[Matt Darcy]

I just don't see anything from my limited experience that touches the rack 003 - let alone the rack+ 003 - the black lion mods seem to make it a worth while unit to keep hold of, so I just thought it was worth asking about people who can do the same/similar upgrades in the UK

[Darryl Ramm]

Ah obvious ones are UAD Apollo, UAD Apollo 16, Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt, ....

A 003 Rack is not close to any of those in features, performance, and arguably audio quality, and certainly vendor support.

[Matt Darcy]

Apogee Ensemble looks interesting, £2000 is a big jump upgrade though, but if you're going to invest, that looks like the right option

[albee1952]

You could also bypass the stock preamps and converters with one of the many 8 channel lightpipe preamps on the market. Behringer ADA8200 is not bad at all(and better than the 003 IMHO) but I recently bought a Midas XL48 and am extremely happy with it

[Craig F]

Personally I find Black Lion to be a bit of "Snake Oil Salesmen"
All they do is talk they have never provided any before and after quantitative measurements of their work

[Jay_uk]

For now you could always add a TC electronics bmc2 (used one is cheap) for the D/A. Its a very small footprint with lots packed in to it. Sadly no inputs though. Anyway food for thought.

[TCM]

As you can see in my signature, I had a 002 Black lion mod done.
I personally cannot confirm that this is snake oil! I definitely could hear a difference.
As far as I remember there were no duties as I was "summoned" to the German customs office because they wanted to know what this box was. I said that it was an audio interface and learned that audio interfaces were not subject to duties (at that time, I don't know how it is today).
I had to pay the value added tax on top, though.

Would I do a BLA mod today?
Possibly not, as you can use many other interfaces with the native version.
I possibly would look into the Apollo, Apogee, or most likely an RME Fireface UFX. But all depends on how many I/Os you need.
my2c