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Doublehelix 30 October 2004

I am looking for a relatively inexpensive 8-channel D/A to generate headphone mixes. I actually need 16-channels total, but 2 X 8-channel systems will work. I am going to be feeding these from my RME 9652 via ADAT at 44.1, and taking the analog outs to a mixer for headphone mix generation.

I am not too concerned about the sound quality (within reason) since it is only for headphone mixes. I have another other D/A setup for the main monitor mix, which I *am* concerned about!

There really seems to be nothing at all on the lower-end of the market. You go from an Apogee DA16x down to the Behringer ADA800 (which also has mic preamps and A/D).

Is there anything else out there that has a lot of channels of D/A that is cheaper than the AD16x, but doesn't say "Behringer" on the front?

Comments

KurtFoster Sat, 10/30/2004 - 15:11

James,
I have 2 of them and they have worked perfectly ... the nice thing is there's no drivers to mess with .. just hook 'em up to your sound card via the lightpipe and you're ready to go ... They don't sound too bad either, especially if you clock off the sound card ...

The AI3's don't have as good of dynamic range as some other converters (about 98dB) but for your application (cue mixes) this should not be an issue .. Personally I think they sound fine, I would rather spend my dough on mics and pres .. I think that makes more of a difference than converters.. but someday I hope to get the cash for some Apogee converters myself ..

Doublehelix Sat, 10/30/2004 - 19:57

Roly wrote: I use the dreaded B product for headphone mixes. It's fine. Also good for guide tracks.
cheers
Apogee AD 16
RME HDSP 9652
B product for headphones
Lucid DA2496 for 2 track

We have a very similar setup actually, although I am leaning towards the Benchmark DAC-1 as the final 2-track D/A.

I would need two of the *B* or Alesis DACs to get my 16 tracks for the cue mixes, that means about US$440 for the *B's* (new), or about US$650 for the Alesis units (used). Not that much different in price really...but trying to find 2 used Alesis units at the same time on Ebay might be difficult, whereas I can get the *B* units all day...

What I am doing here is converting from a digital mixer to an analog one, and I need to convert the digital outs coming from my RME to analog now...

Doublehelix Sun, 10/31/2004 - 17:19

Roly wrote: Hi
Why do you need 16 cue mixes?
Also..I paid less than 200 for my B piece
cheers

Thanks Roly...

Actually, I only generate 4 cue mixes (although I might be switching to 6), but I send out 8 stereo stem feeds from my DAW that I use to *create* the cue mixes. So for example, I have a drum stem, a lead vox stem, BG Vox stem, Rhy Guit, etc.

I then build cue mixes from these stems, combined with live feeds from the mic pres for any new tracks that are going to tape. Now if cue mix #1needs more drums, no prob...more vox in cue mix #3, no prob...

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