Pointers to good AD

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:54 pm

Here is a comment from a VERY experienced friend regarding the SRC in Samp:

Samp and Sequoia work *exactly* the same way on SRC. This was confirmed from MAGIX tech support long ago. I have the same dialogue you have, and Sequoia has the same problem Samp has with the SRC. The problem is not in the choices. The one that says VERY SLOW on bounce will be quite quick, if you do a SRC. The same dialogue on effects (destructive) that says VERY SLOW will be much slower and will sound better.

Rich

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:00 pm

You can also get very good SRC results using the free R8brain software from Voxengo...

The offline SRC from Samp and Sequoia is quite good, the online or bounced is somewhat less so...

--Ben

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:22 pm

My friendly studio gear seller suggested the new Apogee 16x as an alternative. Any comments on that one?

Gunnar

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:00 pm

Depends on price. Right now Mytek is selling the remaining stock of 8x96 converters at VERY low prices. Another very attractive feature of the Myteks are the optional ADAT cards that allow you to send AES and lightpipe (SMUX) simultaneously.

My setup allows recording of 16 channels; I never need to play that many. I also send to a HD24 via the lightpipe for backup.

I used to use Lynx A/D but the Mytek is noticeably more transparent when recording more than 6 channels. You should definitely audition anything you are considering-- but I have not seen Apogee considered in the higher category of A/Ds in a while.

Another issue is whether NOT having 192 with the Myteks is a problem, assuming that the Apogee goes to 192. I used to record at 176.2 and concluded that is a pointless waste of real estate, not to mention a serious challenge to the computer with high track counts. I now operate at 88.2 with no complaints. If the price is close I would go with the Myteks.

Another question is since this thread began as an SRC question perhaps it is time to start a different one?

Rich

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:30 am

I got around to do a bit of listening. Currently heavily leaning towards 8ch of Lavry Blue. The price is just about what I can reach and to my ears what I heard was very "musical" somehow.

Last chance to make me change my mind. Any takers?

Gunnar

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:36 am

I've used the Lavry Blues extensively and you pretty much can't go wrong with them. There are a lot of great converters at that price of which the lavry's are one of them.

I will say that the one problem with them as they come stock is that they have a fan in them that is quite noisy. Perhaps the newer ones don't (the ones I use are original dB Technologies ones), but if it is the same, the fan can be a pretty major issue.

--Ben

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:47 am

ghellquist wrote:

I got around to do a bit of listening. Currently heavily leaning towards 8ch of Lavry Blue. The price is just about what I can reach and to my ears what I heard was very "musical" somehow.

Last chance to make me change my mind. Any takers?

Gunnar

Seriously - check out both the Myteks and the Aurora! Sure the Lavry's are nice, but I like the Myteks even better - and for a little less even still is the Aurora, which after playing with all of them, I decided to go with. (Not *quite* as beautiful as the Myteks, but not so far off that anyone would ever notice.)

J.

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:10 pm

I saw on another board that Lavry are about to release a new stereo DAC for around $1000 USD.

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 11:45 am

FifthCircle wrote:

I've used the Lavry Blues extensively and you pretty much can't go wrong with them.

I will say that the one problem with them as they come stock is that they have a fan in them that is quite noisy. Perhaps the newer ones don't (the ones I use are original dB Technologies ones), but if it is the same, the fan can be a pretty major issue.

--Ben

Well, just received the AD. No fan at all in there.

A bit of work left to be done on flight case and internal cablings and such.

Gunnar

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:05 pm

Well, after a VERY busy week, I thought I'd stop in for a visit once again (probably won't get to this board much since I am now in my busy season + now have even more work since I just took over some operations of another studio).

Anyways, I was at the AES this past week and in between serving on panels, I got to speak to the folks at Lavry as well as Daniel Weiss. To clear something up earlier in this thread, Daniel does state verbally that with well implemented code/algorithims - recording at 88.2 or 96 kHz and SRCing to 44.1 shouldn't be a problem. However, I told him the real time SRC I use to get the audio into the CDR recorders for quick client refs, and well - thank goodness I am at 88.2! No, I am not going to say what the unit is. Also, Daniel has not written a paper on this subject...words right out of his mouth. I will be trying his restoration processor soon - if you haven't seen/read about it, you should take a look.

Concerning the Lavry's - they no longer have those noisy fans. I am considering them and with the Benchmark ADC1 for a remote two channel ADC. I will also say that I am considering in my recording studio the Aurora 16 and the DAD product. I am replacing another 24 track, 24 bit recorder, so the Aurura 16 will likely be needed for multi-track sessions. The Aurora 16 will need to be modified, since it clips at +20dbu. I spoke about their lack of headroom at the AES show and they have now admitted that they will need to make a +24dbu unit available for those who require it. I am still looking at other affordable AD/DA combinations.

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