audio i/o buying advice - MOTU vs RME vs Apogee

T

thebrudge

New member
hey folks -

i'm looking for some advice. i am currently upgrading (hopefully anyways) my core studio from a motu 2408 mkII, to a ___ ??

i work on a G4 and don't do much live recording, working in particular with audio and midi and do not have much use for TDIF and S/PDIF. i generally record only one track at a time. i am holding onto my miditimepiece AV and mackie 1202 mixer. the audio ins on the 2408 are not as quiet as when i first started recording (newbie ears growing up i suppose), and portability is now a second important concern driving this decision.

i have roughly $1100 to spend on the interface and card.

SO ... the three options i'm weighing are the following:

1) the RME multiface w/pci + pcmia card bundle (for portability).

2) the apogee mini-me (the USB aspect worries me much more than the fact that it only has two audio ins)

3) the MOTU 896 (not very portable and again not sure about the MOTU converters)

thanks in advance for any advice and or experience you can provide. if you'd prefer to post to me personally, i'm at maurer505@yahoo.com

take care,
john
 
I could be wrong but I doubt any of those convertors would be much of a step up. Are you sure the noise is in your convertors and not the preamps or monitoring chain?
 
That RME card will kill those others. without a doubt...i don't think anyone that's heard all those options has said otherwise. Go with it, the pcmia card looks awesome. go with it.

Brandon
 
thanks for the advice guys :)

brandon, i've heard similar things about the RME gear. nice to hear it again though. i'll most likely go ahead with that option.

and texroadkill .. i've isolated most of the elements in the chain and a little extra noise does seem to be coming out of the 2408. not much mind you, but every little bit counts i suppose. thanks anyhow for replying.

k, off to research prices and to ogle new TiBooks ..
 
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