My converters are starting to show there age.

[Ryan Silva]

I have two Delta 1010s and I have loved them for years now. No complants, no problems, just 24/96 love. I recently got a Pre Sonus Central Station and I truly love how quite it is and it's ease of use. When I hooked it up I set up two main inputs: TRS (from 1010) and one SPDIF (also 1010) and I couldn't belive the improvement when I let the "Central Station" do the DA conversion. Cleaner highs, better image, all that jazz.


Has the day come?

Is it time to upgrade?

Sorry it's not that I'm unhappy with my Delta's. I just wonder if there are converters out there that are better for less.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[JamesHE]

I've owned a Delta 1010. I can say, yes there is much better out there for not much money. Back in 2000 I bought a Delta 1010 to replace a Gadget Labs 410. The Gadget Labs was clearly better sounding when I compared them, but I nedded the additional inputs at the time. As a side note; in my comparison I discovered that the 1010 was inverting polarity on the way in! not a good "feature". I sold the 1010 not long after I bought it. Still have and use the Gadget Labs on my home machine. Currently I use a MOTU 828 MKII and a Mackie ONyx 800R in the studio. The 828 MKII AD sounds good (some would say it's a little "smeared" sounding, but it's all subjective, I say it's just a little "round") The 800R AD is very clear on the highs, but not really hyped sounding, just a little sweet in the high mids. Defintly a step up than the MOTU I think. But somethings I still like to track through the MOTU, like electric guitar and often snare.

Converters get better and cheaper every few years it seems. Even though I'm set for right now I still think about possible upgrades. The RME Fireface 800 (and now a smaller, cheaper 400) is highly regarded, that could be another to look into. I'm liking what Mackie's up to with the onyx line, and I'll be waiting for the 1200F to come out and get some reviews.

You could just keep the 1010's for now and get a nice A/D to go spdif in. Something like the RME ADI ? or the Lucid units aren't too terribly expensive and would defintly be a step up from the Delta's. Or if you got into the $1000 range you could have a piece that wouldn't be "outdated" for a long while. (benchmark, Mytek, Apogee mini me)

enough rambling from me.

[unsung]

CONVERTERS!!!!!!!!


So important................. I went from a Gadget labs wave/24( I would assume 1010 like) to a Lynx2 card and It was a BIG improvement. Way More important than mics and pres in my view.


CU

[Catfish]

I just made the jump from a Layla 24/96 (that has served me very well for many years) to a Lynx Aurora 8. I could not be happier, I did not know what I was missing. My other gear sounds better to me now, go figure.


Catfish................

[A-Barr]

How would you describe the sound of bad converters? I've got an RME box at home, but at work I have to use the built-in audio card on a Dell Dimension, which I imagine is a pretty crummy converter. I do have pretty good monitors in that set up and when I listen to something like a hard rock or metal album or anything else with a crazy drummer, the cymbals have some of that breaking-glass warbly mp3 sound to them. Is that the converters failing to translate those bits accurately?

[unsung]

Better converters Bring more "life" to the sound, in my opinion. If that makes any sense.

Since I got the Lynx2, I don't work so hard for things to sound nice Man, I was always. adding tons of EQ and trying all kinds of stuff to get a good sound. And the sound would JUST LAY THERE!


or something like that.

Anyways, The Lynx 2 was the thing CU

[I'm Painting Again]

well what your hearing with your own specific system is a mix of all the gear your using (or the gear used to record the record your reproducing) coupled with how you/they are using/used it..

I've gone from maudio to MOTU to Lavry and the differences where one, features and connctivity..then two, the sound was different too but its hard to judge because your dealing with so many other factors befor you even get to the ADDA conversion..I can remember in general the recording done on the maudio44 were more "brittle" and unnatural than the other two(maybe my lack of experience recording, i dunno)..the MOTU1224 were a bit better..I actually made some great recordings on that..then the Lavry Blue is just kind of almost "invisable"..but not 100%..it kind of tends to thicken things slightly the way a disstressor does..I guess introducing harmonics or something..those units sound "musical" in that way i think..those things along with some other more expensive conversion have tape-like "soft limiting" and can make your records very loud way more than I could ever dream of getting with the other two..I can re-digitize(go to analog back to digital) a couple of times without hearing a difference..which is a good test for conversion..

I can tell you there is a big price difference between those Lavry's and my cassette 4track and the 4 track still has some desirable qualities that the expensive Lavry lacks..and vice versa of course..

[thearnicasync]

I remember the delta 44 , then the 1010. Next up was presonus firepod. Better kind of. Then 002 (inputs 5-8, anyhow), easier on the ears but not really better...just sort of different. Apogee 48k...better, but still very "digital" sounding to my ears. Finally, I've landed on a motu 828mkII, with lucid stereo ADDA, and that's finally sounding great. After new monitors.

What makes all of this crap tolerable is the Fatso, though. I'd probably go a step down in converters before I got rid of that thing.

But yeah, the 1010 sounds good for a long time, until you hear something better. After RME and on up, I think differences are very subtle. Easier bass, that's for sure. I gotta say, the onyx converters (standalone, not mixer) sounded really great to me...mine was just built like junk, so I took it back...so incredibly problematic. I don't think the 800 has those issues. For the price, that's gotta be the one to beat, i think.

$.01

[@?,*???&?]

I have two Delta 1010s and I have loved them for years now. No complants, no problems, just 24/96 love. I recently got a Pre Sonus Central Station and I truly love how quite it is and it's ease of use. When I hooked it up I set up two main inputs: TRS (from 1010) and one SPDIF (also 1010) and I couldn't belive the improvement when I let the "Central Station" do the DA conversion. Cleaner highs, better image, all that jazz.


Has the day come?

Is it time to upgrade?

Sorry it's not that I'm unhappy with my Delta's. I just wonder if there are converters out there that are better for less.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

News to me. I had no idea the Central Station was anything more than a router for monitoring. For $400, I'm surprised it's also an A/D, D/A. Are you sure?

[klangtone]

It has a D/A.
But no A/D.

Roy