The Pro VLA mod is finally here!
In a nutshell we vastly improve upon the ART Pro VLA by attacking the most crucial parts of the circuit that have been completely ignored in the past.
The VLA's biggest problem has ALWAYS been that the tubes were not given enough voltage to deliver a good sounding stage of amplification and most importantly, the opto compression circuit sounded horrible. Sources would lose their clarity, bass would cause the compressor to unintentionally pump and overshoot, the unit was useful on 2 buss in very light application but you could not accomplish the same results as the high end opto compressors on the market.
In a nutshell those days are over!
The mod that we have devised for this compressor is monstrous and transforms the VLA into a completely flexible and advantageous piece of gear to have in your rack.
The attack and release times are faster, the dynamic range of the compressor has increase some 40db and the overall clarity of the VLA is now absolutely stellar and provides the perfect "sleeper hit" compressor without the 3000 dollar price tag. Simply put the stock unit CANNOT do the things the modded unit does. We did not for example just change some capacitors and expect magic. Instead we decided to use the opto compression circuit from a mastering compressor and install it in the Pro VLA. The tube circuit was modded to hit the tubes with hot plate voltage (similar to a vintage tube microphone) and we rebuilt the PSU to be much more robust and as well much quieter. We then installed high quality input and output capacitors. This was already sounding great! But we wanted to take it a step further so we said lets upgrade the input and output opamps and put them on sockets so the end user can roll their own opamps if need be. Then we recapped the entire unit with high end capacitors and installed our special sauce of circuit biasing to preserve the transient response and high end clarity. This was a vast improvement as well!
But then I told Jim about the Carnhill 1:1 transformers from UK and how I wanted a super clean, "transformer only" front end. So we took out the input section, installed a pair of super clean Jensen line transformers and kept the opamp line driver so we could drive the GINORMOUS Carnhill output transformers. The first time we fired up the "NeVeLA" my jaw dropped to the floor....this was literally right up there with the vintage stuff. Almost like a tube 1176 with a variable threshold and the ability to go into SUPERNUKE mode if the owner so desired. Then I did the unthinkable, I turned the threshold on the modded VLA to +20db and cranked the signal into the input. Sonic bliss! I could take those digital recordings and get this awesome dose of flavor that was beyond my reach with digital saturators, tape simulators or whatever magic toy there was in plugin land that week. It was like a real LA2A but faster and better, like a real 1176 but better. Indeed this thing was a high end monstrosity waiting to happen. And its hiding in that VLA you have in your rack right now.
If you can't afford $2000 for a single channel of high end compression, how does spending under $600 sound for under 2 channels sound?* If you're in the US or international we can buy the VLA for you, mod the unit and ship it off to you completed. If you get the Lightweight mod which performs only the crucial improvements to the circuit, we can purchase a VLA for you for $279 and mod it for $250 (for the first 20 people who order the mod). That's a total of $529. Return shipping not included.
If you're interested in the VLA mod or any other JJ Audio products please email me at:
langston@jjaudiomic.com or you can call me at
315 454 2255 (8am to 6pm EST).
Thanks
JJ Audio USA
