Is this the $699 " The Silent Alchemist Kit", or something that you put together yourself?
It is the Silent Alchemist Kit pledge with some addons that were special offers, I had second thoughts about cancelling the pledge due to how much it cost and ordering the unit by itself.
Very brief thoughts (take with a pinch of salt as I haven’t that much time yet), there is an improvement in noise, but with certain equipment if I up the gain beyond my normal listening levels I can hear noise still present but not as bad as without.
At normal listening levels the noise is not noticeable. However, with my Cioks DC7, this has the cleanest output if any noise is present.
Also I can hear the fan whine when it kicks in (something I am sensitive to, might not be noticeable to others) in a quiet environment, but shouldn’t be an issue if you are listening to your synths.
Unexpectedly, before they began shipping out the pledges, they had a post on kickstarter trying to temper expectations. Disappointing for expectations, but commendable in at least trying to be honest.
Initially I was annoyed with the noise issue, as it can’t be said to be 100 percent silent in all cases. However I will say on the whole, I do not regret backing this project. It is also a big plus in convenience and the noise is not there in all test cases I have done so far.
Will provide some more updates after spending more time, perhaps some recordings for comparisons.
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I ended up with a rack pdu and Anker chargers on all plugs and some amazon trigger cables for 9V, 12V, 20V. Total cost was under 200€ and each synth/pedal has their own 65W AC to DC converter and I can switch cables as needed. Not portable though. It’s only for the studio anyway.
It was a worrying sign that it was delayed. Huge hats off to them for honesty, that makes me trust them in the future. I think this device is a pass for me due to fan noise and electrical noise, I’d have paid big for something that worked perfectly but I can get halfway measures through other routes.
But but but, I love their other products, I salute them for trying hard here, I’ll buy their other things in the future more eagerly, and I hope this device recoups its development costs by sales to the people it suits well.
I received mine as well. All the ports but the non isolated port work great. The only noise I get is with the one synth I have that will always produce noise when using USB MIDI with it (my Nymphes) switching to TRS MIDI solves the issue and its not the fault of the SA. Unfortunately there is one significant issue with the SA the 100W non isolated port is super noisy and I was hoping to use that port on the devices I have that need more than 20W. Its noisy to the point of being unsable I’m afraid.