How about a used ALESIS HD 24 XR. It will even work today with ProTools 9 or newer. It's a poor man's Apogee at only about $1500 US or an HD 24 stock with the EC 2 upgrade. And hey, you even get a portable 24 track machine thrown in for free or at least a safety backup in real time. You know you can never have too much redundancy.

You know you can never have too much redundancy. But you already knew that.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Best all in one I know of is the Orpheus. They are firewire with great pres to boot, and wish I had one. They aren't cheap but converters are the place to be spending money. I'm not big on USB interfaces but the RME UFX is getting good reviews here so it might be the ticket.

I believe that is a USB 2.0 enabled device? So in theory, its throughput should be slightly better than FireWire. But the computer writes this data differently depending on the type of interface utilized. That's where my computer knowledge basically ends. FireWire is a stream whereas USB utilizes lots of caching, writing packets or something like that. But if RME has worked it out, it ought to be good. I know that they don't make crap. So what's it all about Alfie? Was Orpheus at the AES? Did I miss them? I'm not even familiar with that. I guess I'm getting old, 56, yup.

Alfie works at Micro Center, my local computer store.
Mx. Remy Ann David

We're not far off, me being 54 :) Prism makes Orpheus. http://www.prismsound.com/music_recording/products_subs/orpheus/orpheus_home.php

If you're just looking for converters, the Behringer ADA8000 gets lots of love. Go line in and bypass its mic preamps. Lightpipe it to whatever interface. I know, I know, everyone hates the staticy ear, and I more than most, but that particular unit holds its own against Lynx and Apogee all the time in controlled A/B testing.

BTW, just for perspective, I don't have the ADA8000, I'm running a Lynx Aurora 16. Check out the Behringer before you dump a pile of cash.

bicasaur, post: 380073 wrote: If you're just looking for converters, the Behringer ADA8000 gets lots of love. Go line in and bypass its mic preamps. Lightpipe it to whatever interface. I know, I know, everyone hates the staticy ear, and I more than most, but that particular unit holds its own against Lynx and Apogee all the time in controlled A/B testing.

Sorry, but around here it doesn't get a lot of love, nor do I know of any published A-B tests that show it is in the same league as the Lynx or the Apogee. However, it is one of the better products of that particular manufacturer.

By way of correction, the line (TRS) inputs on the ADA8000 are attenuated and put through the mic pre-amps. The unit I have in my hire stock I modified to take the line inputs directly into the A-D converters, and it sounds a lot better than the original when connected up that way. The A-D and D-A converters are, incidentally, the same Wavefront devices as fitted in the standard Alesis HD24 hard disk recorder (but not the XR version). About the only use I have for the ADA8000 these days is as an expansion D-A converter box for feeding stage monitor mixes when using a digital mixer at a live gig.

Every now and then someone over on the GS forum will set up a blind listening test where they make the original recorded file available plus a series of files where the signal has been passed thorugh the i/o to analog and back a jillion times. Everyone forms their opinions, then the tester reveals the identities of each A/D/A device. The Apogee tends to color the sound fairly obviously, but in a way that everyone seems to love, where the Lynx is very neutral and sounds like the original file. The ADA8000 usually is accused of sounding "suprisingly" neutral, along the lines of the Lynx. Not that I would be comfortable trading my Lynx away for a Behringer...

What you're saying about the mod sounds familiar to me though. Do you know if that's an easy fix? Something a guy who's fairly competent with an iron could do? If it's easy, it really could be a cost effective solution for a lot of weekend warriors.

But yeah, if the preamps in it sound anything like my little Xenyx 802 mixers, they are to be avoided at all costs. Seems using it without the mod would be a bad idea.

I have been using the AD16X/DA16X with PT HD accel system for many years, very stable , awesome word clock with Big Ben. I wouldn't trade them for anything. I tried there new I/O's Symphony and I still choose the X series. Love them, you can auctually get them alot cheaper now than what I paid for them awhile ago, so I bought another set.

Recording 2 inches @ a Time(plus PT)