tourtelot

In my experience, the FETHead boxes had a LOT of self noise. I used a set for a stereo ribbon for a short time and frankly, the result was un-usable for me. The Royer dBoosters were markedly better sounding, but still not close to the sound of a dedicated ribbon preamp like the AEA TRP (The Ribbon Pre). You get what you pay for. Simple gain is not gonna make you distant mics sound close. Sorry. D.

Battery power sources and LED lamps. What a different world we live in today. I always hated the "generator dance". (Although I still fondly remember the big arc lamps of yesteryear. They were magnificent in their brute strength, pun intended). D.

I did that once with three glass lamps over a cocktail bar set. No one was amused. :):) D.

Read the OP's first post. He has a limited budget and he's not building Abbey Road II. So for $1.6k, hell yes. D. PS. FWIW, I have 24 channels of Grace and a JoeCo on a pretty big Dante AoIP network so I know what can be done with more money.

I record music on my 788T all the time. Good music, well-played music, symphony orchestras, church choirs, early music folks. Some end up on CDs, some Grammy noms. I have NEVER had a client (or anyone else) say that my recordings weren't "musical". Bologna! The 788T preamps are just fine for recording music, never fear. $1400-1600 will get you what you want. D.

Still nothing bad to say about the preamps in a 788T. I have 24 inputs of Grace m108, among the top acoustic preamps out there, that I use for multitrack recording. I used to take 8 channels of Grace out on the "high-end jobs, AES into the 788T as a bit bucket. On close listening, in the studio, on good monitors, I could not tell any noticeable difference between the 788T pres and the Grace in any of the locations I record in. I decided to forego the extra weight and only travel the 788T. The CL12 fader package gives me all the mixer, routing, pans, limiters and a simple EQ that I would ever need for capture. Way less expensive used than many of your other choices. As far as reliability, never had the 788T fail in, probably, 15 years. Can not say the same thing about recording to a DAW. I put an SSD in it myself; easy-peasy. Shameless plug, but one of the m108s with a Dante card is for sale if anyone is looking. D.

A used Sound Devices 788T (or even a SD 744) would be all you need to record music. I AM a professional music recordist and for anything under eight tracks, I still use, and am still awe-struck by the quality of, acoustic music recorded on my 788T. D.

Leave it to Nagra to use an (albeit smokin') electric typewrite in their literature for their oh-so-cool new SN. I won't be among those who might purchase it (my SD 788T still works great), but I can't argue the drip. D.

This! 25-footers for me with no problem I could see or measure. I use 110ohm because it's "correct", but that's just me. D.

First the writers, then SAG, now the Cicadas. D.

I don't remember when I bought my 788T (at least 11 years ago? I think I bought mine in 2008) but can honestly say I have never had issues with the firmware on that machine. Ever. So what was the "buggy" firmware issues with the 788T? maybe with stuff like keyboards that I never used, so I am not saying it never happened. Sincerely curious. D.

You may have incorperated these in your cable but I believe there needs to be some resistors in line with the "hot" from the Cooper. Please correct me, anyone, if this is wrong. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1693501-REG/remote_audio_nagsir_2_rcas_to_7_pin_tuchel.html/overview D. Just found this from Nagra: "Yes, on a IV-S, the input cable must be equipped with a resistor 56 kΩ in series. These inputs are "current inputs." For information, the reference of the original NAGRA cable is QCSE. Regards, F. Guerra"

Sorry to hear this news. John was a friend to the production sound community, no doubt. D.

Just for the record, I meant the Sela. The 4.2 got turned for a lot of years with a PSC M4 mixer. D.

Never got a chance to turn the knobs on one of these, but . . . . D.