RS80017A - 80017A Clone

3/2022:
The RS80017A has been "rev'd"! The RS80017A now utilizes a real 3109 IC for the filter section. It also uses nearly half of the parts required for the first revision. We believe our clone is the most authentic on the market, and the first to use a real 3109 filter IC since the 1980's!

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Rosen Sound is proud to now offer our own entry into the 80017A clone market

Product Summary:
The RS80017A is a hybrid VCF/VCA circuit that replaces the infamous Roland 80017A "voice chip" in the popular Juno-106 synthesizer, among others. The RS80017A offers identical sonics and can be used among original 80017A's without issue, though we highly recommend replacing all 6 chips due to the 100% failure rate of the original 80017A found in all Juno 106.

The RS80017A is compatible with all Roland synthesizers that use the 80017A, such as the Juno 106, HS-60, GR700, MKS-30, and some others. As you may be experiencing while researching your issue, the original 80017A has a 100% failure rate due to their potting compound shifting with age causing damage to the encapsulated PCB resulting in common issues like a dead voice, noisy noise, no cutoff or resonance control, no VCA control, and all other kinds of weird issues.

Technical Details:
Original 80017A Behavior:
For many years (ourselves included until 2019) technicians would strip the coating off of the chip and reflow solder to the damaged pads in hopes that it would solve the issues, and this was moderately successful. However, in this day and age it has become less and less reliable as a solution, to the point that we will not provide that service any longer. Clone chips have been available for nearly a decade and sound identical and are infinitely more reliable than the originals.

Why clone chips makes sense:
Without getting too deep into the science, we will describe the original 80017A and then our new RS80017A to hopefully help you understand why clone chips will not "change the sound" of your Juno-106.
The original 80017A utilizes 1x IR3109 and 2x BA662 IC's with some small capacitors and resistors on board. These chips, while referred to as VCF and VCA respectively in their datasheets, are actually just quad and single OTA (operation transconductance amplifier) cells with some added on-chip function such as linear/exponential conversion and buffers. Using "off the shelf" OTA chips plus some support circuitry has resulted in many popular 80017A clone chips that work great. Since the topology is "the same", the chips have been designed to sound identical. Some have issues though, and we describe those below.

Why You Should Choose Our's:
The RS80017A has been designed as of 3/2022 to be even more authentic to the original 80017A than any other clone on the current market. 

Our clone chip utilizes none of the dual-cell OTA's found on every other clone chip. Instead, ours utilizes a real 3109 IC for the filter, meaning no "tricks" were used to make it sound like the original chip. It's the real deal.

Our chips are backed by a lifetime warranty, so if problems arise that are not due to poor installation, we will ship you a new one.

Installation is very simple. The chips do fit into machined pin sockets, but we highly recommend soldering them straight into the PCB, especially if you plan to gig with your Juno-106

Due to the fact that the original 80017A's have a 100% failure rate, and our mantra of providing high quality parts for high quality repair work, we only sell these in full sets of 6.

We are working on "dealer pricing" and other incentives. Contact us if you need more than 5 sets.
See this listing for installation service
See this listing to have your entire Juno serviced

Proudly made in the USA