Powering Studio Series AD-01 Analog Delay ( MN3005)

[santana157]

I have been powering this Studio Series AD-01 Analog Delay with 9v from a VoodooLabs iSO-5.
The Iso-5 also has a 12 v un-regulated jack.
I was reading about delays on AnalogMan's site. He said the Boss DM-2, which I assume this pedal is a copy of, used a 12 v un-regulated ACA power supply. Apparently the MN3005 chip, that the DM-2 and this delay both have, likes more power. (He did mention something about the DM-2 converting that to 9v somehow).

This Studio Series pedal sounds glorious at 9v. I have never heard anything like it I can't imagine it getting much better. It's much nicer than my DMM which is kind of old-has an AC power cord-and might even have the MN3005, also.

The Studio Series says 9v on it. But could it take the 12v un-regulated?? Would it work better, would that be bad, is the 9v regulated power bad for it?

I love this pedal. I want to be sure it's happy, but I have not found any literature on it.








Thanks.

[Dirk_Hendrik]

Your assumption that it is a Boss clone is rather odd. A little digging would have led you to discofreq's website:
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/re ... nalogdelay
Lots of different "brands" for the same LocoBox pedal. No reason at all to think of a Boss connection.

Then,
There's most likely only one reason you pedal might not work at 12 volts (regulated or not) and that is the chance of an incorrect bias for the BBD. That in turn depends on the way the supply power is internally regulated (or not) in the pedal. And that is your homework: find out the regulation in the pedal.

[crazyabe]

To my very limited understanding, Boss DM-2 and most of the older Boss pedals that required ACA 12V power adapter, the circuit runs on 9V. The incoming 12V is reduced to about 9V with a resistor and a diode. When a battery is used, this voltage limiting circuit is bypassed, so the circuit still runs on 9V on a battery. In short, the overall circuit of DM-2 is running at 9V, and therefore, MN3005 is also powered by 9V as well. (check this article, http://stinkfoot.se/archives/1019)

On the other hand, MN3005 could run up to 15V. That's where Deluxe Memory Man powers the MN3005s. I've recently built a DM-2 with MN3005 (I also own the original) running at about 14.3V. The repeats definitely sound cleaner with the added headroom(+5V-ish) but I personally like the sound of DM-2 running at 9V because of their darker, warm, and grittier repeats.

You can run your pedal at 12V but I don't know if 12V is big enough increase in voltage that would result in a noticeable sonic difference. If you are planning to, you just need to make sure all the caps, transistors, and other ICs are rated high enough for the added voltage. Also there might be a zener diode that sucks away the added voltage, so watch out for that. You need to re-bias the MN3005 for sure. Ideally, you want to use a scope to bias it, but I've had good results just by listening carefully for least amount of distortion.