External A/D conversion

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kevin Deschwazi
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Kevin Deschwazi

Kevin Deschwazi

Well-known member
I'm struggling to understand where external A/D converters fit in when you already have a PCI soundcard installed.

Currently I have a Delta 1010LT and cheapy pres (DMP-3, VTB-1,TL Audio Ivory series and a couple on my little Tapco mixer). I'm looking at the focusrite ISA 430 (pre pack). It seems like a good upgrade for me with the digital option, better converters and 4 nice pres with 4 extra channels of conversion so I can save and add a few different flavours later.

I've studied the manual but there doesn't seem to be any PCI card that would replace the Delta just the expansion board which goes into the unit. So how is the conversion in the card bypassed by the external converters? Or is my thinking on this is just all wrong?

Any opinions on the ISA430 would be appreciated too, particularly on how much of an upgrade this would be on the conversion and pres I'm currently using.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
You would need to get a card with digital inputs, like a spdif input.
In my experience, if the converters don't cost around $1000 per pair, it isn't enough of an upgrade to bother with. So if you are thinking of a $1000 mic pre that happens to have conversion built in, chances are, it isn't really any better than your delta card.
 
In general, Jason is right. It's not usually very cheap to upgrade converters with enough of an upgrade to make a big difference. The Focusrite is a little bit of an exception though. The Focusrites D/A is much much nicer than that of the Maudio.

The converters in the Maudio card are only used when you are inputting an analog signal. By converting at the Focusrite, you are in essence bypassing the Maudio converters. All the Maudio will do with the already converted signal is relay it to your DAW application. It will however be used to convert your signals from digital to analog if you are using to output for playback or for mixing to an external device etc... So in essence, adding the Focusrite means the Maudio will not be doing A/D on those signals, but will probably be performing your D/A conversions still unless you add an external D/A converter as well.
 
The 1010LT has spdif in so that's OK.

Farview, I'm going to check the pres out before I buy and if I think they're worth the money I'll go for it. The conversion is an option so I may well get that seperately and from somewhere with a returns policy that I like.

I'm hoping that it is a bit of a step up from the M-Audio conversion but I'm not expecting Apogee. For $600 (for 8 channels) I'll settle for a bit of an improvement in quality as there are other benefits like the level metering, limiting on the converters and having all the ins and outs in a box rather than hanging out the back of my PC (at the moment it looks like it's had a prolapse).

Thanks for your thoughts folks.
 
are you looking at the ISA428 or the 430??
you put the 430 but said it had 4 pres on it...which isn't the 430.
and that whole ISA series does sound really good. I've used it before and am actually considering buying the 430 (producer pak)
 
bennychico11 said:
are you looking at the ISA428 or the 430??
you put the 430 but said it had 4 pres on it...which isn't the 430.
and that whole ISA series does sound really good. I've used it before and am actually considering buying the 430 (producer pak)
Click to expand...

Sorry, yes I'm talking about the 428 (pre pack).
 
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