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Mike Timmer's review of the BW Audio Limiter kit

20th May '99

From: "Mike Timmer" <timmerm@worldonline.nl>
To: <web_surf@SPAM-TRAPhotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 19:21:30 +0200

Hi there,
I did a review of the Broadcast Warehouse HQ Limiter.
I'm Dutch so maybe you should check my spelling a little bit.
Attached is a .htm and a .Doc file.

greetings,
Mike Timmer

The Broadcast Warehouse High Quality Audio Limiter Kit

I ordered the kit at Broadcast Warehouse with my Creditcard. When I order the kit online the page told me that my order was accepted.

I waited for two weeks but nothing happened so I gave BW a mail.

The communication between the person of BW (probably a technical person) was short but clear :

Did not recieve your order, try again.

So...I filled in the fields again trying to order the BW Compressor/Limiter but I asked for a confirmation by E-mail (I wanted to make sure).

Then I recieved an E-mail wich said : We received your order.

I recieved the Kit within 1 1/2 week ( shipped to The Netherlands).

The print is a good looking dark double sided one, but the above side is only for a view wire-bridges wich you don't have to solder.

Let's start with the components. The most important are :

4 times TL071
4 times TL072
1 LM13600
2 times BC107
2 times BC170

And a lot of Resistors,Capacitors and Diodes.

(I'm not a technical person, but people told me that the TL071-072 are very good ICs).

Building

When reading the shipped papers, I nottest, that when you are done soldering, there will be four component left. These are for the Pre-Emphasis ( 75us for USA/Japan or 50us for Europe/Row).

You have the option of including them are not, the components should be soldered in the line of your audio prior to the Limiter input.

The papers give you a good discription how the insert the several parts ( Always start with the lowest height components first).

When I soldered the components following the manual I had four transistors left ( Oops, they forgot to mention T1-T4). No problem, there is a sheet where to put them).

Be carefull, if you are soldering for more than an hour you could make the mistake of switching the BC107 and BC177 (like I did...uh, doesn't work).

Price :

I paid 54 pounds wich is about 192 guilders or 97 Dollar.

Specifications of this Stereo Kit:

The unit requires plus and minus 12-15v but the unit comes with a negative generator sub board to allow the limiter to be used with a standard single supply 12-15v dc.

How does it sound?

GREAT, this is a quality kit. Also, if you like a phat compression, buy it. Note that this is not just a Limiter, but a nice peace of hardware that also can Pump Up The Volume and gives you a nice steady sound.

You can adjust the Left and Right Gain and your Threshold (Output level).

Adjusting the Gain till the LED flickers gives you lots off compression, but I turned it down a little because it also becomes a little noisy (this is normal when there’s too much Gain).

The Threshold can be adjusted to a minimum of 0 db.

You can't adjust release and attack time but they are chosen well and I did not feel like changing it.

What’s nice to know is that I tested it with a PC and Soundcard with the Volume fully open (1.5v), it handles lot’s of input without distortion.

Hmm.. It would be nice to test the difference between this kit and the Low Cost Little Brother.

Mike Timmer

timmerm@worldonline.nl

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