Hi Dave,
Thanks so much for the post but I got lost at "KA6 gives 0dBFS ...... etc" LOL. Sorry for being such a noob.
By the way, I am also buying a bnew computer. Does the KA6 need special specs like it only responds good with xxx chipset and such? (Ive read that firewire cards are picky. I hope this being USB wont be that picky).
Ive also been reading around and some suggests the ff:
Focusrite scarlett
Roland Quadcapture
maudio profire 610
Are these any good? How do they stack up against the KA6? I should only be concerned with the AD conversion of the interface right? since the preamp would be done solely by the ISA one.
Thanks again Dave. Im not having luck and it is sure nice to get some help from you.
PS - ISA One has only 1 output but I should connect it to KA6's channel 3 and 4? (2 inputs)? How do I do this?
I really wouldn't handwring about converter quality. There are only a very few A/D, D/A converter chip types on the market. Much more important is the drivers written for that hardware and NI's is of the best (whispered that RME had a hand!) Certainly it beats the pants of almost all other usb AIs for latency and quite a few Fussywire ones!
Sorry you were "tekked out"! Bottom line is thet the ISA will produce a pretty hot signal, potentially pushing the NI (and almost any other "non-pro" AI) into distortion but I would not worry about it.
Dave.