Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Some of you may remember the Original Rack-O-Sound™ box I made, which is a rack mounted Rick-O-Sound type splitter box with a built-in headphone amp and auxiliary audio input so you can play along to music, etc.:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=406014

Well, now we have the newly finished Rack-O-Sound 2.0™!

What's new?

Well, now it has not one, but TWO auxiliary stereo inputs so I can hook up a CD player or computer as well as my keyboard and play along through headphones.

Also new is a redesigned instrument input section. I decided that I didn't like the idea of using power type switches that are made for switching hundreds of volts at several amps to switch low level audio signals from an instrument. Instead I use the switches to control small signal type relays which are designed specifically for switching low level signals.

The new version also has a selectable input buffer that has either 0dB or 20dB gain to match the input levels of various equipment better. The input impedance is greater than 5Meg ohms so it won't load the pickups at all. Of course, with the flick of a switch, you can go back to a totally passive connection if desired.

As they say, it didn't happen without pictures, so... And "topless!!!" And the "Smoke Test!"

Sound clips or it's just a box with wires!

rickenbrother wrote:Sound clips or it's just a box with wires!

And pretty lights. Don't forget the pretty lights.

johnallg wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Sound clips or it's just a box with wires!

And pretty lights. Don't forget the pretty lights.

Nice CJ!

johnallg wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Sound clips or it's just a box with wires!

And pretty lights. Don't forget the pretty lights.

That's coming. I just have to figure out how to make the recordings...

Are you sure I cant get you to make me one of these??

bartyclue wrote:Are you sure I cant get you to make me one of these??

Sorry, probably not.

First off, I can't legally make one just like this and sell it because it connects to mains power and has not undergone regulatory certification (UL,CE, etc.). Certification for this type of device would cost well over $10k and would require yearly fees to keep it up to date.

Now, it would be possible to redesign it to work with a "wall wart" (this is why so many things come with them by the way), but that's another big design issue, finding one that will allow a dual rail supply (+ and - voltages) or doing a single voltage design (which is possible, but has a whole lot of other trade-offs to make it really work well).

But then it would probably be stupidly expensive. I did a quick add-up of the parts and it's pushing $300. Just for parts. Then there's the time to build it. I didn't keep track, but just guessing, I'd say around 30 hours to build it, not counting the design time. Now, I don't know what I'd have to charge for labor, but $25/hour isn't unreasonable for skilled electronic assembly in the U.S. these days. I looked into doing a PC board, but a small quantity would cost around $50 to $100 each, for bare, unloaded boards. That would make assembly faster, but there's a lot of layout design time to think about. So, as I built it, that's something like $750 for labor, added to the $300 for parts and you get $1050.

That'll get you a fairly nice mixer that'll do as much or more than this will do, plus it'll have EQ controls! I mean, heck, a stereo to mono splitter cable ($20) and a Mackie 402-VLZ3 ($100) will pretty much cover it since it can take 2 instrument level inputs, a stereo pair of line level inputs and another RCA jack stereo "tape" input and has headphone outputs as well as 1/4 inch line level outputs.

I actually considered going that way, but for my specific setup, I needed 2 more channels of XLR mixing to take the outputs of my Rane AC22B electronic crossover to send to the power amp for actual gigging instead of practice. Still going with a bigger, fancier mixer could have done all I wanted, but I wanted it to all fit in a single 1U rack space. And I thought it would be fun to make (it was).

So, realistically, it would cost way too much for me to make another one, and I really don't have time (this one took me several years to do, the first parts order was made in Jan. 2010, I doubt anyone would really wait 3 years for me to get another one finished). If anyone wants the schematic and wants to make one for themselves, I'll post it here. If you start selling 'em, I want royalties...

johnallg wrote:

johnallg wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Sound clips or it's just a box with wires!

And pretty lights. Don't forget the pretty lights.

Nice CJ!

How could I forget the pretty lights?!
Just breaking your chops, CJ looks pretty cool!

cjj wrote:I just have to figure out how to make the recordings...

Don't tell us you forgot to write out the owners manual as you were designing the Rack-O-Sound 2.0!!

Well you know, documentation always seems to get put off until the end. All those tech writers we used to have really were useful after all...

In reality, this box has no recording capability and it is, essentially, just a box with wires! Some of them give a bit more drive capability than your standard wire, and some actually give a higher output level, but it's supposed to end up being totally transparent and sound "just like a wire." And you know what? It does!

cjj wrote:"just like a wire."

There's the title of your first recording with the Rack-O-Sound 2.0!

cjj wrote:..it is, essentially, just a box with wires! Some of them give a bit more drive capability than your standard wire, and some actually give a higher output level...

A wire with gain!

Kind of like the Cave Passive Pedals B-Drive Mk II, huh?