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I am using an Aardvark Q10 interface for my studio. I would like to take advantage of the two SPDIF tracks available on the Aardvark. Can anyone recommend a reasonably-priced pre-amp that either has SPDIF out built in, or at least an optional card? Thanks.

Comments

teleharmonic Thu, 11/06/2003 - 14:00

the m-audio DUO is a cheap 2 channel preamp with SPDIF out. It is actually intended to be a USB audio interface (so it also has headphone monitoring) but i just use the SPDIF out right now. I bought it so i could use it with a laptop down the road for remote recording with the USB connection. It has the preamp ins as well as line ins that bypass the pres.

the preamps are nothing special but they give a nice clean signal. worth checking out for a couple hundred bucks.

Bobby Loux Fri, 11/07/2003 - 01:56

Yeah!..if you can get the mini-me around $1100.00 save up the extra $100.00 there's really no other 2 chan. mic pre/converter even close and it does have the soft limiting feature.

the DBX 376 is a mono tube channel strip Pre/EQ/Comp/DeEsser/dig.outs.... the 386 is the 2 channel version pre/SPDIF only...both units are not very good especially the digital options which sound no better than a digi001 which is decent at best.

research the Apogee

Barkingdogstudios Tue, 11/18/2003 - 09:05

Just to repeat a response I placed on my other post thread .....

Apparently, the Focusrite Trackmaster does offer an alternative. There is an "ADC External Input" on the back of the unit that allows you to access the second "spare" channel of the stereo digital output. So, I could use another preamp to plug into the "ADC External Input" on the Focusrite and use the Focusrite itself to act as a pre amp. This would allow me access to both of the Q10's SPDIF tracks! WOO-HOO! Ok, I realize the Focusrite isn't a Neve or API .... but it does what I want at a sub-astronomical price. And hopefully this puts me somewhere between the quality of the Digitube and the Apogee MiniMe. There may be other strips that offer this but they sure don't advertise it! I only found this out by downloading the Trackmaster user's guide.