I find there is a bit of muddled thinking here IMHO? We are surely comparing converter quality not the ancillary parts such as pre amps.
Early AIs did indeed have poor pres, low in gain and high in noise. They are much better these days but, since most AIs only have a single gain control for the pre amp they are limited in the range between high gain and high headroom. 60dB is about the practical maximum and even that leads to the next problem... 'Gain Bunching.
This is the effect you find where the gain suddenly jumps up at the last few dgrs of the pot's rotation. Thus, gain pots are not linear in angular rotation and gain. Putting a knob 'half way' does not give you 'half gain'. Better pre amps use more expensive pots with special laws but the ultimate is digital gain control (see RME)
Nobody outside NASA is "saturating" a 57/58! The onset of distortion for the 58 is around 160dB SPL at 1kHz and the output voltage would be +12dBu or 3.2V rms, well above the headroom of most AI mic inputs.
And finally, to be REALLY pedantic, nothing is ever 'saturated'. The term means a device is turned hard on and ceases all linear function. For a transformer (or mic coil) this means its impedance has dropped to its DC resistance, for a transistor it is turned hard on as a switch and probably has a resistance of a few tens of Ohms. Valves are never saturated by design. It buggers them up.
"Saturation" is one of those terms that has entered the audio lexicon but what people really mean is progressive, harmonic distortion.
Dave (I'll get me coat!)
Early AIs did indeed have poor pres, low in gain and high in noise. They are much better these days but, since most AIs only have a single gain control for the pre amp they are limited in the range between high gain and high headroom. 60dB is about the practical maximum and even that leads to the next problem... 'Gain Bunching.
This is the effect you find where the gain suddenly jumps up at the last few dgrs of the pot's rotation. Thus, gain pots are not linear in angular rotation and gain. Putting a knob 'half way' does not give you 'half gain'. Better pre amps use more expensive pots with special laws but the ultimate is digital gain control (see RME)
Nobody outside NASA is "saturating" a 57/58! The onset of distortion for the 58 is around 160dB SPL at 1kHz and the output voltage would be +12dBu or 3.2V rms, well above the headroom of most AI mic inputs.
And finally, to be REALLY pedantic, nothing is ever 'saturated'. The term means a device is turned hard on and ceases all linear function. For a transformer (or mic coil) this means its impedance has dropped to its DC resistance, for a transistor it is turned hard on as a switch and probably has a resistance of a few tens of Ohms. Valves are never saturated by design. It buggers them up.
"Saturation" is one of those terms that has entered the audio lexicon but what people really mean is progressive, harmonic distortion.
Dave (I'll get me coat!)