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Ive got a friend here who is interested in Memory Man pedals, so Ive been making some videos for him to see/hear the differences.
I have a few memory men, and Ive built a few from the "madbean" PCB shop over the past 6 or so years, so I felt reasonably confident that I have some feel for the circuit.


Here we have four pedals, the same loop playing out of a Boss RC-3 , blind test. Two runs, with the order changed.
The pedals in the test (from oldest to newest)

- 90s Reissue big box (EC2000) with 2x Panasonic MN3005 chips and true bypass via 3PDT
- 00s Reissue big box (EC2002revE) with 4x Panasonic MN3008 chips and relay true bypass
- Current issue XO (EC-D25revB) with 4x Panasonic MN3008 chips and true bypass via 3PDT
- Madbean Total Recall that I built with 2x Panasonic MN3005 chips, and true bypass by 3PDT

All four have had R2 changed to a 1Meg Trim pot (Analogman Input Impendance mod) and set according to my taste, in the context of the rest of the trim alignment
All four have had the clock capacitor changed, such that the clock frequency is as close to 7.5khz at max delay time as possible, for ~550ms - this is a service analogman also charges for, and I think Howard Davis does these mods too.
For completeness sake, I should add that none of the pedals have had the "gain reduction mod" which is frequently purchased at the same time as the two other mods described.

I tried to set the pedals to as close as possible in terms of level, blend, delay, repeats and warble (from the vibrato modulation).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KIeFQ1JHdY[/youtube]
Answers on a postcard (in this thread)

Round 1
A-
B-
C-
D-

Round 2
A-
B-
C-
D-

Have fun!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KIeFQ1JHdY[/youtube]

One had slightly more percussive repeats which I didn't quite like, (1A 2B?) but other than that they all sound the same. I always assumed the magic with the DMM lay in the higher voltage, so ironically maybe that's the one that had the stronger repeats?

In order of vague preference:

1) BCDA
2) ADCB

Hi. I'm the friend (attention! hey! look at me!).
I completely butchered this. Really hard (see: impossible for me) to tell a difference. They all seem really reaaaally similar to me.
That said, the OG big box looks soooo cool.

Snufkino wrote:One had slightly more percussive repeats which I didn't quite like, (1A 2B?) but other than that they all sound the same. I always assumed the magic with the DMM lay in the higher voltage, so ironically maybe that's the one that had the stronger repeats?

In order of vague preference:

1) BCDA
2) ADCB

Good ears, sir.
1A and 2B are the same pedal, so kudos there.

For sake of completeness, they are all working at the same voltage (24v DC input, internally regulated to 15v positive ground)

You have also placed the pedals in the same order - just need to match up with which one you think is which (!)

amazing

Great vid!

I liked 1C and 2A best.

Any idea how they compare to the tap tempo alternatives?

PSQRCL wrote:Great vid!

I liked 1C and 2A best.

Any idea how they compare to the tap tempo alternatives?

Ive never owned the TT variants, I am concerned that they accept a 9v power supply however.
It might be that they run off a "charge pump" internally, but without seeing one (or the schematic) I can only guess.

PSQRCL wrote:Great vid!

I liked 1C and 2A best.

Any idea how they compare to the tap tempo alternatives?

you have good taste too, but they 1C and 2A are different pedals...

I don't know why cork-sniffing gets such a bad name.

It's one of the best ways to ascertain whether your wine
has turned into vinegar without having to chug vinegar.

Seance wrote:I don't know why cork-sniffing gets such a bad name.

It's one of the best ways to ascertain whether your wine
has turned into vinegar without having to chug vinegar.

I mean, some people literally chug vinegar, so there's that.

I can't tell any differences worth writing about. Maybe that makes me dumb. Maybe it's good because I don't have to fork out mojo money for things.

Gigahearts_FX wrote:
You have also placed the pedals in the same order - just need to match up with which one you think is which (!)

amazing

I liked the tails on D of the first round and B of the second though D on the second was pretty okay too. Listening on computer speakers that is.

How does the preamp section compare in these? I've read that when the wall wart replaced the hardwired plug, it coincided with the preamp section being overhauled. Maybe that's accurate and maybe it's not, but it could help to explain why there's a greater discrepancy between 25-yr old units and most of the 2-3 most recent iterations. It would suggest that the best-sounding MMs benefit from other aspects of the circuitry, more than just their delay chip sets.

echorec wrote:How does the preamp section compare in these? I've read that when the wall wart replaced the hardwired plug, it coincided with the preamp section being overhauled. Maybe that's accurate and maybe it's not, but it could help to explain why there's a greater discrepancy between 25-yr old units and most of the 2-3 most recent iterations. It would suggest that the best-sounding MMs benefit from other aspects of the circuitry, more than just their delay chip sets.

Cant hear any discernible difference, personally.
The madbean circuit is mean to be vintage correct and can be wired for buffered bypass where the preamp is always "on" in your chain and I think it sounds comparable to the big boxes, certainly.
My personal preference is not to use the Memory Man to drive my signal anyway, so I dont like to boost the preamp.
Analysis suggests that the preamp devised at the time of design (70s) was an an era where many guitars were low output single coils.
The preamp is perhaps best used with that type of guitar, and certainly this would suggest why the imput impendence and gain reduction mods are quite favoured in modern setups to prevent the preamp clipping which some people dont like the sound of.