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Hi,

I am working together a plan for when I eventually start my own studio, and I am looking at setting up a mastering room. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to have though I o course have to fish around and try things out properly.

The main thing I am fuzzy on is which converters I should use?

I have hear good things about the CRane Song HEDD, and Lavry AD122 also seems to be highly regarded. Does anyone have any preferances, suggestions etc.?

I am looking for the best money can buy. There can be no compromises to the mastering room :)

Comments

Massive Mastering Wed, 04/21/2010 - 07:38

Can't imagine not having the HEDD for the chain converter. The monitoring DA is arguable - But I absolutely love the (also Crane Song) Avocet. Not too often is there an 'extreme bang for the buck' piece that comes out with that much bang for that little buck... Not that I'd put it in the "you can do a lot better if you spend more" category (if I felt I could've done better for more $$$, I'd have spent more $$$). It's just that it was freakishly affordable for what it offers.

audiokid Wed, 05/05/2010 - 18:19

I'm using Lavry Blacks - AD-10 and DA-11 , pretty sure their close but in 2-bus and they are excellent. I'll be running them with my MixDream and Dangerous Master and Monitor as soon as my cable comes, oh lala ... very excited!
I haven't compared the Lavry to the Hedd but I don't think you'd go wrong with anything from Lavry. Very detailed engineering that sounds smooth. open and very quick response.
You are on the right path with either,

There is Prism... I've always wondered how they sound but way beyond my budget.

I have a strong hunch, pristine quality converters are the next big drop in price.
I also think very high quality converters are going to be included in many pieces of gear more and more. If you aren't in a hurry, I'd wait as long as you can for your mastering ADDA.

TrilliumSound Wed, 05/05/2010 - 19:31

In my opinion, you cant go wrong with any "good" converters such as Lavry, Mytek, Benchmark, Crane Song (HEDD), Prism etc.. What is best? Hmm very subjective with well known good ones. First, the budget needs to be determined, then go with one within your budget and if you know a place where you can try and compare, that would be it. I had many over the last 10 years (ad's and da's) and I still believe that it is a very personal choice and workflow needs. I am using the Prism ADA-8 (w/ firewire and AES option cards) now and I am very pleased with the sound, routing (signal flows) scenarios and flexibility.