ADAT vs Stand alone systems

[Jim Marquard]

Wow, glad to see this forum because I have been giving ADAT a lot of consideration lately. At one time I was convinced to go Roland VS but having talked to a dealer who sells both ADAT and Roland stuff he said go with the ADAT--especially the ADAT Studio pack. What's your opinion? I would really appreciate any info you may have. Also, any experience with the new ML 9600 that Alesis just put out this summer? Cost? Value?

Peace, Jim

[drstawl]

Does the XT-20 handle the conversion from 8-track digital format to stereo S/PDIF
on that $600 sound card? Do you have to define some mixdown from the 8 channels? Or transfer them two at a time? Is your quite reasonable proclamation about not using the unbalanced outs on the ADAT an indication that it won't work with a Gina?

[drstawl]

Just that Gina has S/PDIF coaxial input and output. I've seen an optical S/PDIF in action between two CD players. It was just a stereo pair being sent. Is ADAT optical a different
data format?

[drstawl]

Any web address on that card maker? Sounds like a competitor in the Aark 20/20+ price range since that unit has 8 analog ins/outs switchable for Bal +4dBu/Unbal -10dBv as well as coaxial S/PDIF, Toslink Optical I/O, MIDI I/O and the option to add:
ADAT optical I/O, ADAT sync. And with a separate PCI card, TDIF I/O.