M-Audio's built-in A/D converters?

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OneRoomStudios

OneRoomStudios

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Hey, does anyone know if the A/D converters in the Octane or the Firewire 410 are any good? Apparently you can run firewire from the octane into the 410 and then into the computer which would give you 10 channels w/ preamps for under $1000. I know the M-audio preamps are decent, but is the conversion any good?

Thanks,


-Peter
 
For a home studio the converters in the M-Audio gear are fine.
The arrangement that you posted of (410+Octane=10 channels) ... won't work.
The Octane, as far as I know, doesn't offer any form of FireWire connectivity. It's digital output is ADAT lightpipe, which the 410 doesn't support. The 410's optical inputs are optical SPDIF only.
 
Oh you're right....I must have mis-read something. You could do it with the 1814 and Octane with lightpipe though right?
 
one room - youll have to excuse me if i got out of the bed the wrong way
today, but i really feel a lot of home studios are obsessing too much about different aspects of their daw. imho - too much money/time is wasted on this stuff. also the market changes so rapidly one could analyse for years without making any real music. i know guys who know what they are doing that have used sb cards and in some instances produced better songs than people using all the high priced convertors. if it were me i would either go very cheap exactly because the market changes so rapidly (ie throwaway)
or go with something great like an rme or lynx that i could keep for a very long time.
 
"RME or Lynx" aren't great. They are a step up from the M-Audio stuff (or at least the Lynx is), but there's still a good 6 or so steps to go before you get to the very top, truly great category. The $5000 converters would be the ones that would last you a long time. Even Lynx comes out with new stuff to replace their older obsolete stuff every few years.
 
So what do you prefer in the 5000,- range that RME doesn't offer?
 
actually i think there are dangers/some negatives of going very high end whether its cars, relationships, or 2 inch multitracks or yes ...sound convertors.
the words high maintenance come to mind .
once i got burnt paying 5k for a high end piece then a few years down the road couldnt get a critical chip for the device because the company went out of business. so the device became useless.
 
guhlenn said:
So what do you prefer in the 5000,- range that RME doesn't offer?
Click to expand...

How about the very best studio converters in the world: the Lavry Gold series.
 
I ment soundwise; what do the lavry's offer that the RME doesn't and is worth the extra 4 grand? If your point is that there are better then RME outthere, i wont argue. But you are on a homerecording bulletin board where an RME is really considered very good. IS the lavry better? no doubt!
 
A lynxtwo modded by Jim Williams or RME modded by him will do you just fine, records were cut on 16bit adat for some time don't your remember? and those records definitly sound better then the majority of the stuff in the mp3 mix clinic.

Would lavry's, benchmarks, weiss, cranesong, manley etc. converters be better hell yes! but is the price justfiable for what your doing? If your running a semi high end mastering facility I'd think so, or engineering was your sole source of income (a professional AE) i'd say mmaaayyybe. But remember records are still being cut on Mix + PT and HD PT, and the lynxtwo stock is at least as good HD and blows mix + 888 converters out the water.
 
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