Comments wanted: Please?

Jeff Donald · March 27th, 2004, 04:07 PM

I don't own any of the Beachtek products, but I've used several recently and haven't encountered any difficulties. I'm not meaning to bias your review, but I'm sure a lot has changed in 6 years, since Alessandro experienced his issues.

Bryan Beasleigh · March 27th, 2004, 04:33 PM

Allesandro wrote"-60, -50, -40, -20, -10, 0, +4, +10. and then the pan pot could have much more flexibility versus just a pot that handles everything from -60 to whatever it goes on the other end."

You must have the Beach Tek mixed up with something else. The Beach has always been passive, until the DXA-8 was released in Feb of this year.

The unit had a switcheable 50db pad to allow line level input and each channel is adjustable from unity to 0 . (no gain) Again the Beach has no pan control as well. Apart from acting as a passive mixer and attenuating device it also isolated balanced inputs from unbalaced connections on camera.

It serves no good purpose to make unsubstantiated negative remarks.

Alessandro Machi · March 27th, 2004, 04:38 PM

You still have to find the "sweet spot" on the Beachtek, do you not? We noticed that sweet spot was very narrow, if you weren't exactly dialed in, the unit would either distort the audio or not pick anything up.

Bryan Beasleigh · March 27th, 2004, 05:07 PM

Allesandro, you're talking about a passive unit. A passive unit doesn't cause distortion it only attenuates, a passive unit can't really have a so called sweet spot either.

Alessandro Machi · March 27th, 2004, 05:41 PM

If the knob is attenuating between +10 to -60, how much distance should that knob turn so that you can actually find the correct spot?

And it then depends on whether the pots are tapered or linear. Perhaps when the test was done in at our video club the one hidden variable was that the digital camera may not be very forgiving.

All I know is that our member, with the help of others, was having difficulty dialing in the correct audio level.

She would turn the dial one way, and the audio signal would drop out entirely, she would barely turn it the other way and the signal would be too hot and overmodulated.

Dan Brown · March 27th, 2004, 09:53 PM

My DXA-6 doesn't have pots, the pad switches 10 dB per click. You dial it in with the camera gain. Or in my case, let the AGC dial it in :-(

On teh bright side, it has 48v phantom and runs a pair of Oktavas rather nicely :-)

March 27th, 2004, 04:07 PM	#16
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	I don't own any of the Beachtek products, but I've used several recently and haven't encountered any difficulties. I'm not meaning to bias your review, but I'm sure a lot has changed in 6 years, since Alessandro experienced his issues. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

March 27th, 2004, 04:38 PM	#18
Alessandro Machi Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA Posts: 553	You still have to find the "sweet spot" on the Beachtek, do you not? We noticed that sweet spot was very narrow, if you weren't exactly dialed in, the unit would either distort the audio or not pick anything up. __________________ https://alexlogic.blogspot.com/ Los Angeles Emmy Winner (yes, used a video edit controller and loved doing so.)

March 27th, 2004, 05:41 PM	#20
Alessandro Machi Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA Posts: 553	If the knob is attenuating between +10 to -60, how much distance should that knob turn so that you can actually find the correct spot? And it then depends on whether the pots are tapered or linear. Perhaps when the test was done in at our video club the one hidden variable was that the digital camera may not be very forgiving. All I know is that our member, with the help of others, was having difficulty dialing in the correct audio level. She would turn the dial one way, and the audio signal would drop out entirely, she would barely turn it the other way and the signal would be too hot and overmodulated. __________________ https://alexlogic.blogspot.com/ Los Angeles Emmy Winner (yes, used a video edit controller and loved doing so.)

March 27th, 2004, 09:53 PM	#21
Dan Brown Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 235	My DXA-6 doesn't have pots, the pad switches 10 dB per click. You dial it in with the camera gain. Or in my case, let the AGC dial it in :-( On teh bright side, it has 48v phantom and runs a pair of Oktavas rather nicely :-) __________________ dB

March 27th, 2004, 04:33 PM	#17
Bryan Beasleigh Trustee Join Date: May 2002 Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,922	Allesandro wrote"-60, -50, -40, -20, -10, 0, +4, +10. and then the pan pot could have much more flexibility versus just a pot that handles everything from -60 to whatever it goes on the other end." You must have the Beach Tek mixed up with something else. The Beach has always been passive, until the DXA-8 was released in Feb of this year. The unit had a switcheable 50db pad to allow line level input and each channel is adjustable from unity to 0 . (no gain) Again the Beach has no pan control as well. Apart from acting as a passive mixer and attenuating device it also isolated balanced inputs from unbalaced connections on camera. It serves no good purpose to make unsubstantiated negative remarks.

March 27th, 2004, 05:07 PM	#19
Bryan Beasleigh Trustee Join Date: May 2002 Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,922	Allesandro, you're talking about a passive unit. A passive unit doesn't cause distortion it only attenuates, a passive unit can't really have a so called sweet spot either.