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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 1,992
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Joined: May 2005
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for a long time..been looking to upgrade my ADA.
(no i dont mean getting a cute looking assistant district attorney..lol.
i'm married. )
i'm talking convertors.
ive looked at everything under the sun from ultra hi end on down.
but i'm hellish leery on buying very hi end ADA costing oodles of quids.
mainly cos chips can go bad, and will i be able to get service a few yrs out.
ive been burnt before buiying hi end.
now i DO HAVE a usb device here with spdif input.
so i was wondering does anyone make an analog to spdif likkle box with
very high A>>D quality conversion ??
i'm aware of the bla sparrow as one example.
any others people are aware of ??
cheers .
retired puter engr....powertracks on amd......NICE !
"what is the black art of audio engineering ?"
my silly songs...motagator.com/bmanning
see my tips in the tips section.
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Joined: May 2000
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One of the the E-MU USB sound devices is known to work standalone as a converter. I think you have to hook it up to the computer first and set it up using the software, after that, it functions as a standalone converter.
--Mac
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My Behringer Bass V-Amp pro works standalone as a A/D converter if you send everything through without amp simulation. Apogee of course makes A/D boxes for many hundreds more. However, there's one with 1 hour left at an attractive price of $102. http://cgi.ebay.com/Apogee-AD500-D-conve...6#ht_500wt_1182
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Hi Manning Dunno what you want to spend or what you consider "high end". But the MOTU audio interfaces seem to have pretty decent converters, and are built like a tank. MOTU has a track record of releasing drivers for their interfaces from many years ago, and will repair them if they break. But they do not break very often as far as I know. I have the original 2408 from more than 10 years ago, and it still works good as new, but the version 1 only had 16 bit converters. However, even the 16 bit converters were pretty quiet and linear from my testing. Most of the MOTU gadgets will run standalone. The PCI-card-interfaced 2408 MK3 is the latest incarnation of my box, and my old box will do most of the tricks of the newest box, except the newest box has better converters and probably other bells'n'whistles. http://www.motu.com/products/pciaudio/2408/mdm.htmlIf the 2408 isn't connected to the computer, you can push front-panel buttons to route any of analog in/multitrack digital in/spdif to any of analog out/multitrack digital out/spdif. For years I would run the 2408 controlled by a Mac, cross-connected with 8 channel ADAT digital i/o on a PC audio card, and the mixer, and the DAT machine, so I could route audio from/to anything thru the 2408. It runs just as happily hosted on a PC. It would still do that trick today, but I 'temporarily' have the studio torn apart awaiting refurbish. The 'higher end' MOTU firewire interfaces will also run standalone, though they don't have as much overkill in input/output number of connections. MOTU sells a couple of smaller iinterfaces that may not have as many standalone bells'n'whistles, dunno.
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A number of reasonably priced FX boxes have decent converters and can be used in bypass mode for AD/DA. TC Electronics, Lexicon, and the one that's been mentioned a lot over the recent years for this purpose, Kurzweil's Rumor. And you get not only conversion but useful reverbs and such.
the Insolent LadEnough small empty boxes thrown into a big empty box fill it full. ~Carl Sandburg
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thanks for the ideas folks. i'm aware of most on the list. i cant afford mytek or lavry much as i respect it, and i do have a sound interface here with spdif in. so i was hoping to add a simple box without adding another sound device. the sparrow looks interesting for example. http://www.blacklionaudio.com/content.php?p=2was hoping to find something cheaper of course..lol didnt really wanna buy another sound device. being in the boonies of canada also worried if i can get service if something goes wrong with high priced ADA units.
retired puter engr....powertracks on amd......NICE !
"what is the black art of audio engineering ?"
my silly songs...motagator.com/bmanning
see my tips in the tips section.
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Midiman/MAudio used to sell an inexpensive DA/AD box called the Flying Cow. http://www.amazon.com/MIDIMAN-M-AUDIO-FLYING-COW-24BIT-24-Bit-Converter/dp/B0002FDLK4But apparently it is no longer manufactured, and I don't know if it would qualify as a high-end converter nowadays. Maybe a Flying Cow would be very inexpensive if you found one used.
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