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Re: [ARSCLIST] analog to digital converter question
At 09:12 AM 2008-02-04, Douglas Small wrote:
I am a newbie to this list. I am a serious hobbiest.
The weakest link in my work is the analog to digital converter (so
poor I won't even tell you what it is).
Can anyone recommend a unit that is reliable, high quality and
relatively simple to use.
My main work is transferring LPs to CDs
Hello, Doug,
It's too bad you didn't tell us what you were using so that (a)
others can stay away from it and (b) if we know it, we can see what
you find unacceptable.
Quite often, converters are blamed as the weak link when other things
are actually causing the problems. For disc work, I would suggest
capturing at 96,000 samples per second, 24 bits for easier noise
reduction processing (we just had this discussion on this list).
As to how much you have to spend to get a good converter, I think
that for stereo, there are a lot of choices under $500.
In reading the roadmap under the Digital Audio Card Deluxe (see
below) it appears there may be some issues with Windows Vista taking
control of the bit rate and bit depth of the card and doing sample
rate and bit depth conversions despite what you tell the card to do
from your DAW. I don't know if this affects other interfaces or not
as I'm sticking with WinXP for a while longer.
For Firewire connectivity, you might want to look at Metric Halo (MAC ONLY)
http://www.mhlabs.com/metric_halo/products/mio/uln2/ or RME (MAC and WIN)
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_overview_firewire.php
For PCI interfaces (I think all of these are MAC and WIN)
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_overview_pci.php (cardbus, too)
http://www.digitalaudio.com/
For PCI Express interfaces (I think these are MAC and WIN)
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_overview_pci_express.php
For USB you might look at
http://www.sounddevices.com/products/usbpremaster.htm although the
output is lower quality than the input which might not work in your
application (Sound Devices sees themselves as record-centric--also
this is an older product -- dating to 2001 -- and is due for an
update). A higher-cost (and most likely superior) option is
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/
There are many, many other products out there. I am suggesting those
based on the following:
RME: I have two PCI RME Multifaces (not II's) that have serverd me
well and are essentially transparent. Other colleagues have reported
that their FireFace 800 has worked satisfactorily when other products
haven't. RME and most of the other companies in this list do not seem
to fall into the new-model-of-the-year syndrome many other makers
accept. They work long and hard on a product, get it close to right,
and then keep it around for a while. They are also making some
incredibly high-end stuff like their MADI equipment that only would
be used by large broadcasters, touring companies, or recording studios.
METRIC-HALO: I received many good recommendations for this equipment
when I was considering replacing a MOTU 828 MK II and 8 PRE with
different FireWire interfaces, but it turned out I was most unhappy
with the 8Pre (now sold) and I've made the 828 MK II work for me for
now. Alas, I'm on Windows, so Metric Halo is no help for me.
DAL CARDDELUXE: Listmember Tom Fine has used one or more of these for
a long time and B&K (The Danish acoustics firm that is the parent
company of DPA microphones) used this in some of their PC-based
instrumentation. It's also an older product that still performs well.
SD USBPRE: The reviews I've read on this say it sounds great for
recording. It is only 16 bit output. I have their 722 stereo recorder
and am amazed by its quality, robustness, and feature set. SD is a
company to watch.
BENCHMARK: I have used their professional DA products in systems I
used to design and everything they make is top notch as far as I
know. Disclaimer, I am quoted in their clean installation guide (or
was). I also have a friend (and another friend confirms this) that
the Benchmark D-A converter is outstanding with an audible difference
over whatever previous setup he was using--I suspect much of it is in
the headphone amp and the line drivers, however.
Beyond this level of gear, there is Prism and Weiss, to name two.
Prism USB mutli-channel -- About $5000 vs. $1500 for the RME FireFace 800
http://www.prismsound.com/music_recording/products_subs/orpheus/orpheus_home.php
I think you get this level with Benchmark for less money. I'm not
sure in a double blind test you can hear the difference between a
Benchmark/Prism/RME unit. After all a recent study said that people
preferred the more expensive wine even when it turned out to be the
same from the same bottle.
I think this will provide a good basis for making some choices. I
suspect other products out there will work as well. In general, I
cannot recommend MOTU equipment, and I've heard as many bad
experiences as good -- and there are good out there. PreSonus gets
good marks, but I'm not sure about it yet.
Cheers,
Richard
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.