2020 Vari-Mu with a strong character
Hi sluts! Sorry for a longish post, hope someone can help me here.
Let's start by saying that I already have a Knif Pure-Mu and 2 x Retro 176. Pure-Mu lives in my 2bus, Retros seem to be stuck on Leadvoc and Bass, have been for years now. I love all these comps but am now searching for something a little bit different.
So I'm not trying to start another "what is the all time best vari-mu" thread here. Instead, I'm trying to find a suitable comp with suitable mods for a certain tone and have questions the "audio dealers" in most cases wont or can't answer.
Unfortunately I can't go out and rent these machines for a test even though I of course know it's the only way to really know...Then again, there are people on this board who use these...So what do I have to loose, let's try.
Many years ago I had a chance to test Thermionic Phoenix...I loved the tone, round transients, fat and glued "dollar sound". Guitars, WOW, drums WOW... My favorite mastering engineer (who masters my mixes quite often) has a Manley Vari-Mu...Although not the same, I find similarities in the tone... Although I really love my Knif Pure-Mu, I can't get it to do the things I'm describing here. Retro's might do the trick but I need them elsewhere and a stereo unit would be much easier to recall and match etc.
I would mostly use this comp for acoustic guitars, drum overheads, drum parallel (if it's magic enough) and occassionally but not very often on 2buss (for the whole mix to have this round and slowish "glue character".
Please help me to make a decission or point me to a right direction.
Questions:
- THERMIONIC BUILD QUALITY
15-20 years ago when I started I thought all the big manufacturers are fine it's just a little bit better or worse...Then I had to let my beloved Portico modules (4ch 512 pre and 2ch 5033) go because they all had issues with power supplies (this was with the older versions, I'm blind and the old units have buttons which you can fine adjust by hand without seeing since you feel what the settings are).... I also had issues with everything Chandler except TG2s, all the germaniums (had preamps, EQs and comps) had serious problems with build quality...Seemed like every time I bought a pair, one unit was fine and the other was not, details for this are a subject of another thread in another time. So I decided I'm not gonna buy crap quality even though it sounds fantastic...SO to the topic...If I buy a Phoenix, what's the feeling...Will it last 10+ years of daily use or will it crap out in a few years?
- MANLEY MODS
OK, Manley...There are lots of mods out there...MS mod, T-Bar mod, HPF mod..... In all the threads here there are people telling they like or dislike these but there's not too much valuable info on the reasons why. So if I want to do acoustic guitars, drums and occasional 2bus duties with this silky round slow sound, what would be the best mod combination, T-Bar or not? Is the T-Bar mod something we have to decide these days or is it something all the new units have?
What else? IGS, Wes Audio, Tegeler, Handcrafted Labs? What are the best tone Vari-Mus of 2020 and why?
Thanks a lot!
-- Mikko