CMS Discrete Synthesizers ARP 2500 Eurorack system in ACL case w/ cables

I will probably break this up next week and sell the case and modules separately, so vai vai! We’ll lose less money on it that way, but people will go full on piranha and nibble it up.

This is an expensive system for a reason: it is made by hand in the United States and it sounds amazing. It sounds professional, if that makes sense. Every sound, even the dirty nasty ones, sound expensive. It’s a grown-up machine. If you want a cheaper system, Behringer offers a range of much lower quality 2500 modules made in China by whimpering puppies forced to solder tirelessly at gunpoint.

This eurorack clone of the famous ARP 2500 system is housed in and powered by a high quality Audiophile Circuits League (ACL) case, which gives you three rows of 126hp. The modules in this system are 14hp, so they fit perfectly into this case. The system includes at least one of every module CMS has made in the system (including two of the now-discontinued 1032 envelope that was replaced by the 1033).

You get:

one 1050 MIX-SEQUENCER,

one 1051 MIX-SEQUENCER EXPANDER,

one 1055 TRIPLE MODULATOR,

one 1066 24DB ARP 2500 LADDER FILTER,

one 1067 CURRENT MIRROR VCA,

two 1047s COLIN MULTIMODE FILTER,

one 1070 PRECISION AUDIO MIXER,

one 1036 DUAL S/H, CLOCK, NOISE,

one 1016 DUAL NOISE / RANDOM VOLTAGE,

three 1004 PEARLMAN OSCILLATOR / T-MIXER, with one 1004OP OUTPUT EXPANDER KIT connected to one of the 1004 oscillators,

two 1032s DUAL ANALOG ENVELOPE (discontinued),

one 1006 PEARLMAN FILT-AMP,

and one 1033 DUAL ENVELOPE W DELAY.

I bought one 1032 used and one 1037 used, while the rest came directly from the man himself. The 1032 is more like an ARP 2600 envelope than a 2500, but it’s very useful and easy to contour stuff with. The 1006 FiltAmp is one sick sick sickness—I loved going baroquely ham-fisted and running the 1066 into the 1047 into the 1066 into the other 1047 into the 1067.

The panels have an alluring brushed aluminum finish, and feature knobs made by the original manufacturer of the ARP 2500 knobs. Of course, the colors of the knobs corresponded to the colors of the switch matrix, so with no matrix in eurorack format the colored knobs just continue the look and feel of the original ARP 2500.

CMS uses high quality Switchcraft jacks, but they are larger than 3.5mm, so I used tini-jax cables from Samodular, Buchla, and Black Market. They will all be included. The jacks CMS uses are the same as you find on a vintage ARP sequencer. So you may use 3.5mm, but I liked the snug perfect fit of the tini-jax cables. Importantly, it also comes with four tini-jax to 1/4” TS cables to connect the modular to your mixer channels or your patch bay, etc.

It took me years to amass this. Our listing price is not arbitrary. If you total up the cost of all of these cables, modules, and the case new and bought it today you‘d spend over $13,000. I took great care of this system and always get some amazing sounds out of it, mostly with a vintage ARP sequencer. The case lays flat for desktop mode, or rotate the wooden side panels and it will stand up like an ARP 2600. Enjoy…