SIEL OPERA 6 - Distortion and hot power supply

[@classicsonsynths7276]

I love this synth. Great to see you put some love into this one.

[@waheex]

yes they're great. I may be doing some more in the future

[@SacSynths_Jack_Z]

Great to see another one of these massively under rated synths kept alive and going strong! They are super rare here in the US; same goes for the DK600 which is how Siel branded and retailed it here at the time. I've come across several and every single one of them had battery leakage issues. But once they are sorted, they are an incredible sounding synth. Such a unique oscillator sound with wonderful saturation going into those superb SSM2044 filters! Absolute Keeper!

[@waheex]

cheers. It is a nice sounding synth. Quite organic. It reminds me of the BITone but this one is easier to use as it has great knobbage. They get a bit of flak but the Italian synths are well made despite a few classic issues.

[@jonfroin]

It is a really close 'cousin' of the early SSM Bit One. Italian, 6 voice DCO ... SSM filters! Now the proud owner of both 🙂 Agree about the build quality. Apart from the cabling and those vias, the PCBs are very well made and well up to long and intense work as long as you use decent solder/desolder tools.

[@SacSynths_Jack_Z]

Agreed! I actually just acquired an SSM Bit One. I'd been looking for years, but they are extremely rare with only 300 made before they switched to CEM chips. The seller had actually found it! Someone was flipping a house and had left it out in the rain after clearing out the home. It's in surprisingly good shape considering... Actually mostly working too, but osc 2 is dead on all voices so I'll have to dive into that when I find the time. Wish me luck!

[@jonfroin]

Not sure how much I trust the whole "there were only 250 - 300 made" story that circulates. Going by the serial no. of my SSM it may be nearly double that. But without knowing their serial no. policy, impossible to tell!

[@Nipottaja]

Great that you put out repair videos of the Opera, its quite a tricky machine and always good if there are more of these kept alive and working. My Opera 6 that i have has a power supply that gets quite hot. Do you know if this is common? Sign of malfunctioning? Kind regards.

[@waheex]

hi yes the power supply seems like quite a bad design. There is large resistor which gets VERY hot. This is normal for these synthis I think. The resistor burns off the voltage to heat before the rail hits the 5v Regulator

[@jonfroin]

Horrible cables and the even more horrible double sided PCB 'springy' vias that Siel and Crumar used are main suspects other than the obvious potential battery damage of course. I'd still get that battery completely off the main board whilst the going is good!

[@waheex]

Yes there is a lot that could be done to improve the reliability of this synth. The battery on a mainboard is a classic faut waiting to happen, even if it has been 'looked at' before