Audio Card A/D vs External A/D...Is External Better?

B

Bob's Mods

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Is there anyone on this forum who has extensively used both audio card A/Ds and external A/Ds through S/PDIF or Firewire? Is there a noticable difference in sonic quality when using an externally mounted converter over one in the box?

What about using the A/D of a medium grade reverb unit such as an M One XL or some Lexicon unit? Would even they display an improvement over a PCI mounted card A/D?

Bob
 
Bob's Mods said:
Anyone have any experience with this topic?
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I have both in my setup, but it's not apples to apples, because the quality of my outboard converter is better irrespective of the internal vs. external issue.

In theory, it's harder to build a good internal converter because of the noise from nearby PC components, and the dirtiness of the PC's power and ground, but I couldn't say those limitations couldn't be overcome. It all depends on the particular implementation.
 
I've had both, and I am completely external now for A/D and D/A because, like MS said, better convertors are just available exterally.

I suppose that once you're in that 'niche' market', confining yourself to DAWs is unrealistic. If someone using a DAW wants to use your (external) product, there are any number of ways to do so. If you market a sound card, you limit yourself to a subset of the DAW market (and lock out all Protools users as well).
 
if you're not talking about gamer cards then you could get really good convertors onboard with some of the RME type cards... some just pig-tail out to xlrs...
 
That's true, but there is no DAW soundcard equivalent to Lucid, Apogee, Lavry, Manley, eftc. RME converters are good, but it's quite a step up to the bug boys.

That said, before someone feels compelled to state the obvious once again, the bang for the buck may be worth it for you, and of course standard disclaimers apply about the weakest link in you chain, etcl, etc. None of that has anything to do with the relative merits of the units.
 
I just purchased a Lucid ADA1000 on ebay....it should arrive this week. I know these have been around for a while and it only goes up to 44.1 but it also can be clocked externally too so I can get it to 96 if I need to...but I typically just go with 44.1 with my Delta 1010. I plan to continue to use the Delta converters to track drums since I usually use all 8 ins, but I will use the Lucid to track everything else and use the s/pdif of the delta. guess I can comment more once it arrives....


maybe Ill do a 2 way shootout....Ill try out all my mic's with the delta converters and try all my pre's....then use all the same mic's with Lucid converters and try all the pre's....
 
thajeremy said:
but it also can be clocked externally too so I can get it to 96 if I need to...
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External clocking doesn't mean it can generate any data rate. It is likely limited to 48kHz without regard to clock source. There were not a whole lots of boxes that could do a 96kHz data rate in 1996.
 
oh well....like I said before, I rarely record at 96 anyway....i typically just stick to 44.1 so this will not be a problem...


I really wanted a Rosetta 200 but this was so much cheaper....
 
Within a given product family, it's generally safe to say that external gear is likely to be better than PCI gear, if only because essentially no manufacturers are designing new PCI cards at this point. PCI is basically a dead standard from a new design perspective. These days, most companies (at least the companies who still care about cards at all) are focusing their efforts on PCI Express hardware design and are pretty much leaving their legacy PCI lines alone. As a result, external gear will almost always be based on newer designs and technology (which usually means better quality) than legacy PCI gear within any given product line.

Once you start looking at it across product lines or manufacturers, it's all over the map, though.
 
I've noticed on the mixes recorded with an externally mounted A/D that they sound somewhat "cleaner". There is certain hard to describe haziness on mixes that were recorded in the box. This haziness factor may be fixed on very expensive pro level PCI cards. I can't say because I've never tried them. I would venture to say that any newer rack box with S/PDIF could be used as your A/D and you would probably get better results than using any of the prosumer PCI cards. This judgement is based around my own experiences and my not be entirely perfect.

Bob
 
I'm fully external using SSL Alpha-Link converters. I don't know of a converter/preamp (i.e., interface) that could come remotely close to competing with it. I think external converters are the way to go if there's any way you can swing it financially.

Frank
 
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