This is a story of how a very bad situation gets flipped around 180°.  Last year around this same time I started designing a 500 series Mic Preamp that would become the Super Storm.  After many prototypes and tons of frustrating manufacturing failures I had 9 produced to a level that I would call "Production Prototype."  Some of these made it out to other studios for feedback.  2 were sold to engineers in Muscle Shoals, AL.  The electronics were developed to a high degree and I was comfortable with that aspect.  However, I discovered this product needed a very high degree of accuracy when it came to the metal fabrication for it.  So high that I was unable to produce it in house.  I spent months working back and forth with a number of companies as I tried to get samples and quotes for the faceplate and bottom plate.  Ultimately I was unable to get anything tangible from anyone.  This is partially because there are middle men "helping me" to communicate and coordinate with the fabricators and no one seems to be interested in producing runs of just 100 units.  Sadly I had to give up and shelf the Super Storm.  I had a ton of time and money invested in the Super Storm.  I pretty much had all my eggs in that basket.  So, I had no choice but to brainstorm on how to salvage the situation.  I needed to come up with something similar that I could fabricate in-house.  Basically, it had to be something that could allow for a greater margin of error without looking or functioning less than ideal.  In comes the half-rack enclosure.  The panels come somewhat pre-fabricated and powder coated, albeit with a hefty price tag.  I just need to drill them out and print the graphics.  Ditching the 500 series format opened up plenty of new options.  For starters, much more physical space to work with and most importantly, no limitation on power supply requirements.  The 500 series has +/- 16V rails with a very limited amount of current available.  A 32V span provides sufficient headroom for the most part, but more is definitely better and The Dark Storm has +/-18V rails.  Since the enclosure is a bit bigger than a 500 Series module I could fit an extra 2 transformers inside, as well as additional switches and jacks to expand the flexibility over what the Super Storm had.  The added features are a built-in TI Box with a front panel instrument input, a transformer coupled Hi-Z (wet) 1/4" output, a low cut switch, and ground lift switches for the XLR and 1/4" jacks.  I noticed the noise floor is much lower than my 500 series modules.  That is 100% related to the power supply.  There's a lot of power regulation onboard the Dark Storm, which doesn't exist on the Super Storm.  The Super Storm just had to take the +/- rails from the 500 series rack, whereas the Dark Storm has to create +/-18V from a 48V power adapter.  It's a good quality adapter, but the added voltage regulation to create the +/- rails makes for a noticeably quieter background.  I think it's better than the Super Storm in every possible way and it uses most of the Super Storm parts that I already invested in.  Sure, it's a little more expensive than the Super Storm would have been, but the Dark Storm is more flexible and more importantly - it sounds better!

I only have 1 Dark Storm prototype at the moment, with the second in the build queue for next week.  I'm going to try to improve the look of the 2nd prototype in hopes of having a production prototype.  If it works out like I'm planning, pre-ordering can commence.           

New custom LBA mini control knobs - made in house!  These are mini knobs, but I also  have a bigger knob which will be on my more expensive creations.  That's a cosmetic upgrade with the new EQ mod, but there's more than just looks here.  Enough people griped about the "Vision" knob being too high in frequency or that it wasn't audible for some, that I was convinced to design this upgrade.  The new "Range" switch toggles between two different frequency options for the Vision knob.  "Hi" is the stock setting of 10kHz, whereas "Lo" is just 3.4kHz.  The Dark switch provides a very gentle high frequency roll-off at about 10kHz, which almost perfectly mirrors what the "Hi" setting of the Vision does.  I say almost because you can actually get a slightly flatter frequency response across the spectrum with Dark on, Range Hi, and Vision 100% than you could with dark off and the vision turned down all the way.  That is however, with more color.  So if you want an un-EQ'd sound, but you do want more color, this configuration is right for you.  It gets real interesting when you have the Dark on, Range Lo, and Vision 100%.  In this configuration you get an upper-mid-band wide bell-curve boost centered at about 3.4kHz.  That might just be the ticket if you're looking for more presence, but not necessarily more brightness.    If you turn the vision knob down all the way, the dark switch can still be used, since it's a separate circuit.   Vision & Range form an active (tube driven) high frequency shelving boost equalizer.  Dark is a passive HF shelving attenuator.  You can get a variety of new sounds with just these two new switches.  Enjoy!

​New orders will come standard with the EQ Mod and labeled accordingly.  The price for a new DiVision has gone up slightly to allow for the added parts and labor.  $349 USD new. 

Owners of stock DiVisions can send them in for the EQ Mod service for $75 plus shipping upon first emailing [email protected] with your DiVision serial number.  This Mod includes the following:

• The pot-side panel gets two new holes and additional graphics
• The top lid gets additional graphics (EQ Mod).
• The EQ Mod circuit board gets mounted and wired into the DiVision's circitry.  
• Both potentiometers and knobs get replaced.  LBA-brand mini knobs!

This product was designed for designers of FX pedals.  It's based on the 20SB transformer that was used in my 2020S Steel-Core Instrument transformer (1:1), but adds step up ratios of 1:2 (for a 6dB boost) and 1:4.  This can create not just a signal boost, but also some colorful tones from the various impedance ratios at play.  Check out the .pdf for example wiring.  Visit LBA Magnetics to order now.    

 I can't move forward with the Super Storm at this time.   I ran into some serious manufacturing brick-walls with the upcoming Super Storm product.  Primarily, trying to work with other companies to produce various custom parts has proven to be nearly impossible.  I went all-in on my investment with this product. I chose to outsource domestically in order to reduce my cost-per-unit, essentially so I could sell the Super Storm at a very competitive price.  Furthermore, with the Super Storm I noticed I needed a ridiculous level of precision with the fabrication of metal parts.  It was something I first tried in-house and realized my equipment isn't accurate enough for the level of precision needed.  Outsourcing became necessary for this product.  I'm currently awaiting 100 faceplates from a deburring and counter-sinking stage, which is post laser cutting.  From that point I will need to deliver the faceplates to the powder coating shop down the road.  After that I can print the graphics onto the faceplates.  The rate at which the faceplates are being produced is mind-bogglingly slow, but the bigger hold up is actually the base-plates.  I need them made.  My attempts to produce them in-house and my attempts to outsource have thus-far have been failures to say the least.  This is at least partially my own fault for lack of knowledge and/or the necessary tools.  Until I can come up with a cost effective and reliable source for the base-plates, the Super Storm is on hold.

The end of product life for most of my existing product line was  necessary to free up my time enough to produce a new catalogue of products that I can produce in-house and to a high standard of quality.  Coming next week is the first new product, which is a special sort of audio transformer.  The target market is pedal designers and it will be have a minimum order requirement.  It's designed to be the same as what was used in the 2020S Steel-Core Instrument Transformer - when certain pc pins are selected.  However, it can be configured to be a step up transformer with impedance ratios of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:4, depending on which pins are accessed.  That can create the effect of a signal boost when feeding the secondary of the transformer into an amplification stage with a high input impedance.  The transformer can be used to invert the signal polarity via switch, or it can be used to isolate the signal from ground.  A detailed pdf will be provided, which includes sample circuits and a wiring guide.  The LBA-20SX is designed to be the input transformer for FX pedals.  

There is another product I'm working on, which is probably the coolest thing I've made in a long time.  Dark Storm is a stand-alone (1/2 rack ​size) JFET mic preamp with 4 audio transformers and it has both XLR and 1/4" I/O.  It's a 2 for 1 deal in the sense that it can be both a mic preamp or an instrument preamp.  But the best part is the pile of custom wound LBA Magnetics.  This is based on the Super Storm, but adds 2 extra transformers (4 in total) for a truly big sound.  Sonically, it's superior as well since it runs at a higher voltage (36V) for more headroom and gain (81dB!).  The front panel controls are "Gain", "Old", "Polarity", "48V" (phantom power), "Volume", "Low Cut", 1/4" input, and "Power".  The rear panel sports XLR in/out jacks, a 1/4" instrument level output (via dual output transformers), and a pair of ground switches - one for the XLR and a separate for the 1/4" output (for isolation/ground loop elimination).  The Dark Storm will ship without rack ears unless ordered as a stereo pair, in which they will be mounted together and presented as a standard 19" rack unit.  Consider it a desk-top or remote preamp.  It will include a 48V DC power adapter.  I plan to work on an EQ unit in the same 1/2 rack configuration next.  It'll be possible to order a channel strip - one Dark Storm Preamp and one Dark Storm EQ paired into a 19" 1U rack.  For now I'm still prototyping the Dark Storm.  No price has been set.  My best estimate at this point in time is $899 USD.    

Notification of end-of-production for 2020S, 2020i, and TI Box.
At the time of writing this, there is 1 2020i in stock, 5 TI boxes, and I'm accepting pre-orders for the final 6 2020S's.  This half dozen 2020S's will not have the yellow sticker decal, but instead will have the image directly printed to the metal with my UV printer.  Pre-orders will ship September 23rd.  After this run, I'll be completely out of stock of materials for these products.  To restock would require a very sizeable investment on my part.  While the demand for this product has been strong, it's profit margin is too low for me to justify the investment at this time.  The same can be said for the 2020i and TI Box.  My hands are getting older and more sore, so I'm moving on to more profitable ventures.  Sorry for the bad news and thank you for your support. 

True that it's almost here, but there have been many many delays as I battled through all of the materials logistics and manufacturing hurtles.  I plan to wait to offer a pre-release until I have at least 10 units in stock that I feel are "production quality."  The electronics aspect has been complete for some time now.  I've recently been working on getting repeatable quality faceplates made.  Up until just recently I was attempting to manufacture them in-house.  After wasting 200 faceplates through countless mistakes and trudging through the long hours on a manually operated drilling/milling machine, I decided to look less costly and laborious options.  I spent many hours improving the accuracy of DIY drilling/milling machine and finally got it dialed in.  I also spent many hours making various jigs for metal bending (the mounting base plate) and for alignment of parts on different machines.  It was a crazy amount of work just getting the machines set up for the most precision possible.  After all my effort I realized the level of tolerance I need for the metal working needs to be less than +/- 0.00025".  I found that's simply impossible to achieve with my equipment.  That alone means I should consider outsourcing, but I was concerned the cost would be too high.  The bottom line is that I got a couple quotes (2 different manufacturing methods) from domestic companies.  Both quotes would cost me less than my cost for just the metal...  and they would be providing the metal!  I simply can't compete and won't even try to.  That will free up a significant amount of my finely spread time and ultimately it will lower the cost of the Super Storm substantially.  I'm currently waiting on the first test batch from a company who laser cuts the face plates out, along with all the necessary holes, from 4'x8' sheets of aluminum.  After I am able to confirm quality fit and finish with repeatability, I'll move forward on getting the bottom support plate made by a 3rd party.  That particular part requires a 90° bend, which I was having a terrible time trying to align perfectly.  After that's resolved the product is manufacturable on a larger scale than anything I made before.  That'll be the point at which I can confidently offer a pre-order with a short waiting time for customers.  Please standby as I work out these last couple issues.   

My webstore is back up and fully stocked on LBA goodies.  I'll be adding a few more items over the next couple weeks.  One thing I'm working on is creating 3D renderings of my transformers for integration into the PCB design software, KiCad.  When folks buy my transformers in the future, they'll be able to download the KiCad footprints, schematic symbols, and 3D files for those transformers - free from this website. 

The Super Storm is nearly ready for pre-release.  Stay in tune.   

Due to world events, the price of Nickel surged three times to nearly its highest point in history according to the London Metal Exchange (article here).  The issues surrounding and created by this directly affect my business.  Nickel is the primary metal used in the shielding cans of my small signal audio transformers and that's where the issue is for me.  Many, but not all of my transformers use an alloy high in nickel, so those transformers are also affected.  I just ordered a very large quantity of transformer laminations (nickel alloy).  I paid 20% more than usual knowing the price will probably be high like this for a least a few months, but possibly over a year.  The last time nickel prices jumped like this it took a long time for it to recover.  The bottom line is I can't get more shielding cans at this moment in time.  My inventory of cans has dwindled down to a quantity of 32, which won't last long.  I have decided to reserve these for my upcoming 500 series mic preamp and halt all orders of other products until the situation becomes resolved.  I am working on a few ideas to at least temporarily remedy the situation.  The leading 2 solutions would involve manufacturing of custom cans in house.  I'm already manufacturing the transformer bobbins and an array of other components for my products - all of which eats up my time.  I'm not happy about any of this, but I will do what needs to be done.  I don't want to deal with China, but there's a Chinese company who may be able to supply me with clones of the cans I'm currently using.  I need to reach out to them for a quote.  Their price will need to be super low for me to even consider working with them.  I will do my best to keep you informed with future blog posts as things progress.   

-Update 3/30/22:  Enough transformer cans and laminations have been ordered to cover my business needs for an estimated 12 to 18 months.  Hopefully that'll be enough to ride the storm out.  Thankfully, I was able to save some money buy ordering larger quantities.  The overall cost impact on my transformers is minimal.  I will only need to raise my price by $1.50 USD.  The laminations are in stock.  I'm just waiting on the shipment of magnetic shielding cans.  Once they are in stock I'll be able to open my online store within a day or two.  I'm expecting to have them within 2 weeks, but who really knows with the current state of the world?

-Update 4/6/22:  Business will re-open on the 19th of April.  The webstore will be open at that time and all LBA products will be available soon after.

2 DiVisions are all that remain until I begin a pause on production of the DiVision.  There will be a 3rd one, which is not "new".  That unit is a demo has been around the USA to a number of high profile record producers and to one reviewer.  It is the very low serial number of 3/68.  A list of who it's been used by will be published on it's store page when I am ready to sell it.  It will come with a full warranty.  #3 will probably be for sale in December for $350 USD.  
PAUSED:  Due to the coming cold weather I am pausing production of the DiVision.  The screen printing aspect that I undertake requires ventilation.  It gets a bit too cold in the shop with the vent fan going on a winter day.  Production will resume March 21st, 2022.  At that time 26 DiVision's will be the final quantity remaining. 

Head on over to sushiboxfx.com to order one of his super cool LBA transformer equipped tube DI's.  You'll be helping both our businesses and you'll wind up with something great.