The berhinger ADA8000 is the budget choice. At 200 bucks you get 8 (probably shitty) mic pres all with phantom power and ADAT lightpipe output.

The Alesis AI -3 is the next one up. For 300 or 400 bucks you get 8 balanced in's and lightpipe I/o

them are the two cheap ones. Apogee makes expensive ones that are good.

The A/D is where the "rubber hits the road", and not an area where I would look to skimp.

How many channels do you need at once? Do you already have some mic pres?

If you can get by with 2 channels, look into the Agogee Mini-DAC (I think that is what it is called), and if you need a couple of mic pres to go along with it, look at the Apogee Mini-Me.

You don't say if you have good mics and pres. If you do, then looking at some higher quality A to D would be in order. If you don't have decent front end gear (which is a lifetime investment by the way) then getting high end converters is a case of "cart before the horse". Or to put it another way, "garbage in, garbage out".

I use the AI3s and I think they actually sound pretty good. I paid 800 bucks for 2 of them which gives me 18 - 24 bit "inzanoutz". I am sure that better converters would sound better but keep in mind that this is a "throwaway" expenditure. I was going to say investment but it really isn't that, as you know at some point (probably sooner than later) any digital technology becomes obsolete. A perfect example of this is a stack of 5 Alesis ADATs I have that retailed for $20,000 when new that are basically worthless now. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I won't go for that "banana in the tailpipe" again.

>>I use the AI3s and I think they actually sound pretty good.

Kurt:

Can you comment on comparing the AI3s to the Echo Layla 24 converters?

Thanks,

drbam

Originally posted by drbam:

Kurt:

Can you comment on comparing the AI3s to the Echo Layla 24 converters?

Thanks,

drbam

No I can't. I chose the ALESIS because they didn't come with a soundcard, thereby not requiring any type of drivers. I use them with a Frontier Dakota soundcard which as I said before gives me 18 simultanious ins and outs. I purchased the AI3s for $800 for 2 of them, which I found much more affordable than the Echo Laylas. In the end (when 24 bit 48 Hz digital becomes obsolete) I would much rather have a pair of $400 doorstops than a pair of $700 ones. When it comes to digital technology I usually go for the cheapest solution I can find that sounds ok choosing to put my cash into stuff that holds its value like speakers, mics, pres, comps and reverbs.

Thanks for replying all. Right now I'm using a Rode nt1000 with just the pres in my Behringer board (not good). However, I'm getting ready to purchase a Grace 101 pre. What do you think?

Grace is good. So are Neves, Earthworks, Avalons, Manley/Langvin, and many others. I have Neve Amek and Sebatrons and am trying to figure out how to get the cash for a JLM Audio TMP8, which I really like.