Recent content by Telmar

Anode and anode resistors = red Grid and = yellow Cathode and cathode resistor and capacitor (just an option) = green Do you see the last stage ? The signal is taken from the cathode (green arrow), and not as before from the anode (red arrow) ! And there is no anode resistor and the cathode...

Here is the Marshall JCM 800 (Model 2204) pre amp schematic

Hi (again) ! I disassembled my BE-BB module and here are my findings: 1.) it makes use of all four stages 2.) Synergy calls the left tube V1 and the right tube V2 (looking at the knobs) 3.) one stage of V2 is wired as a cathode follower Conclusion: If we look at the whole unit (host-amp and...

The BE and the BE-BB are not the same module. The BE has two identical crunch / medium gain channels. The BE-BB has two differen channels, a clean and a crunch channel. The BE-BB crunch channel sounds very much the same as the BE channel, but the BE-BB clean channel is completely defferent and...

Oh, I forgot something ... It was not my aim to make Synergy look bad. Not at all ! I really think MTS and Synergy is one of the greatest things that happened to the electric guitar in decades. I sold all my amps and rack gear when I had my system for some weeks, no kidding ! My aim was just...

That's exactly what I tried to line out ! If we accept this little variations, we can easily ignore the variants within the modules with the same frequency response, BE, HBE and SLO. But some modules sound (because of the difference in frequency response) and feel (because of the difference in...

My conclusion so far: The Blue and Red channels do not sound the same, necessarily. If the graphs do not match, this is completely out of question. A different frequency response creates a different tone. But I think I am able to spot a slight difference in the dynamic behavior even in the BE...

The HBE Module: This high gain design utilizes of all four tube stages of course. The graphs match perfectly, gain pots are at the same spot.

The BE Module: Very simple here. Medium gain design with three of the four tube stages in use. The graphs are completely identical, gain post are at the same spot (no picture here).

The DS Module: As it turned out, this is a medium gain design, with just three of the four tube stages in use. But look at the graphs, these channels can not sound identical at all. The gain pots are not at the same spot (no picture here). I gain matched the area between 1 and 2 kHz with the...

"Pot switching" or "Stage switching" ? There are currently 8 Synergy modules marked "IDENTICAL CHANNELS - switch not needed" by Synergy. Here is the table I am talking about, I marked all this channels. Currently, I own six of them: 800, BE, HBE, DS, AC and SLO. I disassembled all the six I...

I will measure all my other modules as well in a couple of days, and I am currently thinking about an idea how I can prove my assumptions on the stage vs pot switching theory. Or maybe I am wrong, we'll see. To Be Continued . . .

The AC Module: This is also a low to medium gain design and if you look at the graphs and the picture it might be the same case of stage instead of pot switching as I lined out above, when I wrote about the 800 module.

The 800 Module: The Marshall 800 design makes use of three stages only to get its gain, and a fourth stage that connects the bare preamp with the EQ section. This fourth stage is a bit special, because it's called a cathode follower and provides no gain at all. Some manufacturers add it in front...

The SLO Module: The SLOs design is definitely a very well-thought-out high gain design. If you look at the schematics, you'll notice that it uses five stages for its sound. I did not reverse engineer the Synergy-SLO, but I think it's safe to say they might just A-B-switch the gain and volume...