Comments on: TECH: RCA BE-100 https://www.preservationsound.com/tech-rca-be-100/ information and ideas about audio history Wed, 29 Jul 2015 03:07:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Brian McTear https://www.preservationsound.com/tech-rca-be-100/#comment-325694 Wed, 29 Jul 2015 03:07:43 +0000 http://www.preservationsound.com/?p=51#comment-325694 I won a pair of these raw BE100 channels on ebay about 2 years ago and finally got the chance to hear them … not fully racked yet, just prepped by my tech. I was skeptical going in, but the sound of these EQ channels is quite good. I ran a Coles 4038 on a Fender amp / Gibson SG through my RCA BA31 preamp into the BE100 EQ channel. On guitar, this EQ is blasting with character. The high end (6khz?) is smooth. Low end is big (seems around 80hz). The painton fader had a positive sonic effect on the low end, at least I though. The Mid boost is excellent at 800, which is right at the bottom of the mid boost’s range, unfortunately. We were both convinced that this was a winner.

]]> By: Ben https://www.preservationsound.com/tech-rca-be-100/#comment-30834 Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:18:26 +0000 http://www.preservationsound.com/?p=51#comment-30834 The RCA BC-100 was a special-order-only item available to broadcasters in the early 1970s. It was a radio board; at most, a broadcasting production board. It was never intended for a recording studio! The insides of the thing were loaded with uA709 op-amps. 709s are very close relatives of the infamous 741 op-amp. Stories vary wildly about this board. Some liked it, others hated it. It gained a bad reputation for being vulnerable to RFI. (ummm… *not* a good thing for a radio station console!) Remember that this was the early days of op-amps and “the book” was still being written on them. (heck, we were only into the first few chapters!)

I had the chance to fool with one, and never forgot the experience. The overall construction was solid, but it had that op-amp sound that went right through you. The example I had my hands on had no issues and no complaints from anyone that used it. Having said that, it isn’t a studio recording board like folks here are looking for. Worse yet, the configurations are all completely different and were made on a one-off basis for whomever the finish product was intended. Stations going this route went here when #1 they had an oddball config requirement, and #2 they had a big budget. (RCA didn’t give anyone a break!) Don’t expect to make too much use of one in a recording studio, unless you want to completely redesign it from top to bottom.

Remember that a radio station needs something reliable above all; high-fidelity is a secondary consideration.

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