Really sorry for the bump guys, just eager to have that one small question answered! Ignoring the us1800s superior number of channels, how clean would its recordings be compared to a smaller but somewhat similarly priced unit such as the NI KA6?
I'm going into religious territory here... it depends.
Go to mercenary.com and look at the
preamps that they offer, read the marketing blurbs. There's a preamp there
that costs $11,000, $5,500
per channel.
Is it worth it? It depends... it depends on your ears.
You'll hear people praise Focusrite pres, Presonus, Golden Age, FMR, yada yada yada
ad infinitum. The kicker is that
none of them have your ears.
I don't want to say that nobody really has clue f'ing one: there are people who have had the opportunity, experience, and judgement to make recommendations that are probably spot-on, but that's not me, and it's probably not most of us.
So the bottom line is that when you're dealing with bargain basement audio gear youse roll the dice and youse take your chances. Frankly I'd not place either the Tascam or the N.I. pres on the same level as the FMR RNP but... as l've already pointed out... I really don't know what I'm talkling about.