Seventh Circle Audio

Much to my surprise digikey operates in several countries. After i placed an order there over the US-website i noticed they have a Dutch section with freephone and all in the Netherlands. And they have many more countries listed.

I resorted to digikey because i thought i could get the parts here locally, but the guy at the electronics-shop almost laughed in my face. 1500 uF 50 V capacitor....don't make me laugh. Molex connectors....HA...sheesh

And ordering at Digikey has been made very very simple by Tim, because of the catalog numbers.

DigiKey is quite good. Which one are you building, and how many?

2 N72's powered by a PS02. I haven't decided yet on Sowter or Carnhill transformers.

Somehow somewhere i decided on Sowter. No way for me to tell how they sound in comparison to Carnhill though because i never ever heard those (from closeby; i am pretty sure i heard the actual Neve stuff more then i know in records )

I will let anyone know how it all goes, though it will take some time. Yesterday i ordered stuff from digikey, and to save a bit of money i let them hold my complete order untill all components are available. Also i ordered directly from Sowter (prices where a nice surprise...)

8751 Neve 1073 Line Output 2 £31.12 £62.24

9145 Neve 1073 Mic/Line Input 2 £30.28 £60.56

If you search rec.audio.pro newsgroup there are many comments on the sowter sound. Someone said that trident used them in a board with excellent results. With esoteric gear gurus (a la fletcher at mercenary) knocking even the new st. ives *reproductions* - I don't see how you could go wrong with sowters. The original marinaires are long gone with the exception of the few that show up on ebay here and there...mainly from dan alexander audio...and with a hefty price tag to boot. And as for any original neve output transformers...I have never seen one for sale, anywhere. I have read *comments by geoff tanner of phoenix audio talking about how the output transformer is what changed the sound...this might explain why no one has an interest in letting them go...or why they never show up on ebay...in my little internet world. Never the less, as some would probably say - the sowters won't sound bad...just different. I presume SCA has gone to good lengths to get the sound close to the original...so what if the sowters sound different...still a cool project, and likely worlds better than some presonus.

* http://www.auroraaudio.net/dcforum/DCForumID1/80.html