Wish I had the time/money to get all three and compare. They're all so good, it's mostly what features you prefer.

That said, I'm totally happy & in love with my FF800. I'll never give it up, and I wouldn't mind having a few more. (The Orpheus has me tempted, though....) For what I do - often under 10 mic inputs, it's more than enough, and the matrix output feeds everything; monitor speakers, headphones, SP-DIF backup recorders, you name it.

For external pre's - I have the Grace M802, w/8 channels, I route directly from the Grace DB-50 output into the FF800 with a 6" short breakout cable, into the eight TRS 1/4" jacks in the back of the FF800. With the two mic pre's on channels 9 & 10, I now have a 10-channel HQ recording system that will interface with my laptop running Samp/Sequoia. The FF800 mic pre's are very good on their own, but I often save those two inputs for final, last-ditch inputs; sometimes just house/ambient mics, etc.

I could have gotten an AES-EBU interface from Grace, which would have kept the A/D conversion inside the box, but would have had to send it to them for the install, and it was very very pricey; more $$ than the FF800, with none of the input/output & routing matrix features. Glad I didn't go that route. 6" of modified cable doesn't seem to make much of a change in the sound; the FF800 converters are rock solid, and sound great. ;-)

Haven't got time to do it myself, but I'd like to see someone just do an equipment list and price comparison for the three hooked up and ready to go for 8 channel and 16 channel operation.

What do you mean exactly, Bob?

Do a total price comparison for each one (cable, interface to get either 8 or 16 IO)?

I'm sure stuck on making an upgrade from FF800's though. The FF800 are so stable but i would like to improve my sound there. My Lavry AD10 is a big enough improvement that I know what I'm missing so I'm on a quest to upgrade. I think the aurora 16 is the best all round but haven never compared.

The Orpheus is pretty expensive and I'm assuming it sounds pretty fine too. I'd expect it to be a big improvement over the FF800 but double the price and FW.
If I didn't have great pre's the FF800 is the best product all round for what you get but if I'm paying for pre's that i don't want or need, I'm thinking on selling at least one of them.

audiokid, post: 366452 wrote: What do you mean exactly, Bob?
Do a total price comparison for each one (cable, interface to get either 8 or 16 IO)? ....

Exactly. Every time I look at converters I find there are a lot of add-ons that you need to match the connectivity of something like the FF800 - not to mention four decent pres.

I hear you and sure agree. I think the FF800 is the best thing going. They are so portable, completely reliable and sound great! Not to mention, very reasonable for what you get.

2 new FF800 are approx $3200 and you are setup. 8 pre's to boot, what a deal! Its a no brainer, best deal to get you going. If you aren't wanting to improve your sound, I see no point in looking further.

A new Aurora 16 is $3000 plus $600 for the interface. If it sounds better its worth the price. But I don't need the FF800 pre's.

The Orpheus is $4000 but only 8 IO. To me this would be the choice remote converter going.

I see why Lynx Aurora is the choice if you don't need built in pre's.

There's another way to think of it. For $1700 for the FF800 and $2000 for the UA 4-710d or the Focusrite 428 + converter card you have 8 pres + 8 more analog inputs for almost exactly the same price as the Aurora 16 with no preamps.

Personally I wouldn't invest in a combo like that. Its attractive, but I don't think a good investment. The converters are going to be dated. Its like buying into Pro Tools HD don't you think?

Found this over at the slutz:(Dead Link Removed)

SSL Alphalink AX - $100/ch. (SX = $150)
Lynx Aurora 16 - $190/ch.
RME FireFace 800 - $212/ch. (inlcudes 4 mic pre's + interface)
Metric Halo 2882 - $230/ch. (includes 8 mic pre's + interface)
Apogee Ensemble - $250/ch. (includes 4 mic pre's + interface)
Lynx Aurora 8 - $250/ch.
Mytek 8x192 - $375/ch.
Apogee 16x - $400/ch.
Prism Orpheus - $560/ch (includes 4 mic pre's + interface)
Metric Halo ULN-8 - $750/ch. (includes 8 mic pre's + interface)
Lavry Blue - $1'065/ch
UAD 2192 - $1'500/ch

Lavry Gold - $4'250/ch.

Should add the Lavry Blacks AD DA combo $1600 per channel. And it is sweet.

Metric Halo looks pretty cool but lost me once I saw they didn't support win7.

audiokid, post: 366468 wrote: Personally I wouldn't invest in a combo like that. Its attractive, but I don't think a good investment. The converters are going to be dated. Its like buying into Pro Tools HD don't you think?

I assume you are referring to the 4-710d or the 428 + converter card. If so, I agree that the converters have a much shorter life than the preamps. But the preamps will still be there when the converters are obsolete. So it may work out as an investment in the long run. Depends on the quality of all the elements. I have not tried either unit, but I'm interested. All integrated systems have this problem, but that doesn't mean that a component system is always the best solution.

Agree.

I wonder who is making their converters, do you know?

audiokid, post: 366501 wrote: Agree. I wonder who is making their converters, do you know?

The following was in another thread.

hueseph wrote: Just to clarify, I got curious and contacted Universal Audio. I can't quote them directly but from what I was told, the A/D converter is not proprietary but designed by AKM. Regardless, they seem confident in the quality of the unit and I highly doubt they would use anything that might be considered sub standard.

Thanks Bob, I remember asking Hueseph a while back. Man, I have too much going on in my head. I really need to downsize and get back to just music.

Looks like they are in Tokyo AKM Semiconductor, Inc.
Cirrus is another [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.cirrus.c…"]Analog and Digital Processing ICs, Semiconductor Company, Cirrus Logic[/]="http://www.cirrus.c…"]Analog and Digital Processing ICs, Semiconductor Company, Cirrus Logic[/] and it appears these two companies are really responsible for all this.