As a dealer and user, I can say that the Presonus consoles are a great bang for the buck. There is a new console coming from Greg Mackie in conjunction with QSC to compete with Presonus. Aside from those, which will not be out until '12, there really is no competition in that price range.

The one bummer about all of the Presonus line is the implementation of firewire. Firewire will eventually be out as USB3 and Light Peak are integrated and released in computers in early '11.

When you use the line ins, you are by-passing the preamps. Those pres are pretty good. They are discrete, Class-A amps on 30V rails.

Hey Sheet,

I can't believe how much is packed into this thing, and how good it sounds and how well layed out it all is. I've barely had time to mess with it. Been so busy, however, tomorrow is my first day in a while to enjoy reading and trying more out.
Thanks for the insert tip, I figured that was the only way to bypass them. Someone on their support forums mentioned you could go into the canon's but I'm not sure how that would be a benefit. I suppose just so you could use, the canon connectors. Do you understand that any more than what I just mentioned?

Good to hear about the pre's. I'm assuming they sound better than the pre's in the RME FF800? I don't know much about the technical part of it. Have you done any comparisons?

Re Firewire. It does seem really snappy though. Not sure is this will be a concern for me at all but how knows, maybe I'll wish it had this . So far I'm not at all impressed with USB for audio or midi I don't know anything about USB3. What improvement will there be ?

One thing I think they've missed the mark on is no ADAT.

All in all though, wow, this is a really cool board and I'm definitely going to get a lot of use our of it. Very cool board indeed.

Hey, I didn't realize you were a dealer. Are you with a Brick and Morter or ?

Hey Sheet, this is a good time to ask this as I have always wanted to learn more about the technical part of preamps. I go on what I hear all the time and have really never fully understood when someone throws specs at me with " peramps and the working of consoles"

I know the 24.4.2 uses the same pres as the DigiMax FS. Reading there desription page, it tells quite a bit, just the right amount for someone like me to go, cool, that makes sense and sounds impressive. [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.presonus…"]PreSonus[/]="http://www.presonus…"]PreSonus[/]

High Voltage - The XMAX preamplifier runs on power rails of 30V. Most off the shelf op amp based designs run on power rails of 10V to 18V. Higher voltage power rails deliver more headroom, deeper lows, smoother highs and an overall fuller sound.
Discrete - No op amps. Only transistors, resistors and capacitors. Op amps add noise, coloration and harshness to a signal. Discrete designs deliver ultra low noise and transparency.
Class A - When a circuit is running in Class A mode the circuit is always in an "on" state operating at its optimal voltage requirements. Class A mode has zero crossover distortion and delivers purer, clearer and more musical sonics than class A/B designs which are found in most op-amp circuits.
The net result of the XMAX preamp design is high headroom, low noise, wide dynamic range and wide frequency range, and most importantly, musicality and transparency - smooth highs, solid deep lows, and everything in between.

Anything more you can add here to help me understand the tech part of preamps?

Most console manufacturers are not using discrete or class A preamps. They are using low-powered chip circuits. Class A is arguably the best sounding, albeit most inefficient, topology. Most of your big name boutique preamps and real consoles are going to operate on high-voltages, because they sound better, offer more headroom, have more balls, etc. Topology and component tolerances of less than 2% are what set the boys apart from the men. The XMAS preamps are discrete, ClassA and are 30V. So, while not at 50V like a Rupert Neve Designs 5088, or 600V like some tube pres (like the Presonus/Anthony D Labs 600), it is still a cut above anything in that console's price range in form and function. If someone cannot make a good recording with that console, they should hang it up.

Looks like a great live board. Much more intuitive than the other low priced digital boards around. Time to start bugging the minister at our church.

Just at a quick look - looks like no motorized faders? - no way to use it as a control surface for mixing on a DAW?

No motorized faders but it does have recall. You move the faders to the displayed settings and get a confirmation when you are in the right spot.

It is not a recording console. It is a live console that is a front end for recording, so no, it will not control any DAW, even Presonus' Studio One. Think of it as a replacement for an analog console and processing that allows you to continue using your existing copper snakes.

Class A is arguably the best sounding, albeit most inefficient, topology.

When you say " most inefficient", you are saying this is in a good way when it comes to a high end preamp, yes? As in... it does precisely what it should do? Can you explain this more for me?

This being said, why do we even bother with any other design for high end? Is it all about price point in that respect?

Class A means it is all on, all the time. For instance, a Class A power amp rated at 200W, will consume far more than that to produce it, and it will consume that power all of the time, whether it is amplifying audio or not. They run hotter too.

In the high-end, Class A is generally the choice for preamps. For power amps, Class A is only an option to a couple of hundred watts, and then we see Class A/B and then variants of that. Unfortunately, most active studio monitors and live sound speakers are using switch-mode power supplies, shared power supplies, and amptopologies never intended for audio. These suck and they are easy to spot when listening.

In the low-end, there are many pre-amp and power amp topologies and hybrids, some of them never intended for audio at all, all to save costs and sell for lower than the competition. It is ALL about selling crap for money. Some of them are very efficient however, which doesn't mean that they sound better. Some of these topologies use almost no power at idle and draw it upon demand from the AC power source, which must be incredibly clean and stable. There just isn't much of that, unless you are usingvery good conditioners/regulators, which in this case would cost two to three times the cost of the amplifier. We have come to a point where a system's major components cost less than the conditioners, cables and cases used to support them. It is an odd time.

Ya Bos, this makes a great worship console.

I have the best of both worlds with this. If it was a control surface, that would be a bonus, however, M Faders aren't anything I'll miss for this app. IMO, if you don't have a pretty well integrated controller for your DAW, its a waste of money. Been there done that long ago. I'm waiting for a dedicated Samplitude controller or something very specialized.

The desk has all you need without clutter. That's what makes this extra appealing. Its very logical and quick. I feel I just bounced back to the good old days with 21 century technology. I understand you can use other VST plug-ins inline. I'm not big on plug-ins but that option is there. That's another reason why this rocks. You aren't using up cpu for plug-ins. Its why its so fast. Also, being able to do sound checks without the actual band being there is a really cool feature. Make it simple for bands and you have the musicians rocking and talking.

I'm told PCAudioLabs had their i5 laptop recording 24 tracks in Capture for 3 hours without a glitch on it. I'm not at all surprised because it's so simple, no wonder. Like a seriously scaled down Reaper hooked up to this (basically stop ,play, record , solo, mute with level control). I see no need for speed improvement at this point. It does what its supposed to.

For live work, I can't see wanting to use any other DAW with this. It just filled a big gap and put me above the competition around my town. It looks great too!

For high fidelity 4 track projects, I will use my higher end system with Samplitude. Lavry converters, favourite pre and Samplitude.

Sheet, what is USB 3 supposed to bring forth?

Heading down to the studio now to have some fun.

sheet, post: 357657 wrote: Class A means it is all on, all the time. For instance, a Class A power amp rated at 200W, will consume far more than that to produce it, and it will consume that power all of the time, whether it is amplifying audio or not. They run hotter too.

In the high-end, Class A is generally the choice for preamps. For power amps, Class A is only an option to a couple of hundred watts, and then we see Class A/B and then variants of that. Unfortunately, most active studio monitors and live sound speakers are using switch-mode power supplies, shared power supplies, and amptopologies never intended for audio. These suck and they are easy to spot when listening.

In the low-end, there are many pre-amp and power amp topologies and hybrids, some of them never intended for audio at all, all to save costs and sell for lower than the competition. It is ALL about selling crap for money. Some of them are very efficient however, which doesn't mean that they sound better. Some of these topologies use almost no power at idle and draw it upon demand from the AC power source, which must be incredibly clean and stable. There just isn't much of that, unless you are usingvery good conditioners/regulators, which in this case would cost two to three times the cost of the amplifier. We have come to a point where a system's major components cost less than the conditioners, cables and cases used to support them. It is an odd time.

Hey thanks Sheet, you've explained this all perfectly. Thanks you so much.

It is all about speed. Right now, USB has latency, which is not good for audio. Right now, USB itself does not allow for audio or video to be controled by external devices, although this can be done. Firewire has no latency itslef, is faster and does allow for external control of the data stream, but is being dropped by most computer companies in favor of USB3 or Light Peak.

USB 3.0 tops out at a theoretically maximum throughput of 4.8Gbps, this will be lower in the real world because of overhead. Intel's Light Peak will feature a 10Gbps pipe, more than twice as much as USB 3.0. With a format converter, it will be compatible with most previous data transfer protocols.

Did some tracking with it tonight, sounded great.

I found this link on youtube for all you ProTools 9 ers looking for an interface using this puppy. Its a great combo. Poor video but it gives you an idea.

And to wrap this up, here is the best video for last. What a cool console.

The second one is an interesting video, but does the Presonus guy really look the sort who would lock a mixer before he goes to the ladies' room?

hehe, I'm thinking the same. Sounds like he messing with us.