003 vs. M-audio firewire 1814
 

So I am about to receive my 003 rack factory in a couple of days. For the last year I have been using m-powered 7.x.x with a firewire 1814. I have finally decided to "upgrade" to LE and 003. I am a semi-professional musician, and use my protools setup to write and record/produce songs for my own album after which I intend to put a band together to perform it. The music I am making is garage rock with a lot of electronics; vocals, guitars, bass, virtual instruments. I use mainly ez drummer and addictive drums because I am unable to have a drum set at home.

I have a q6600 with 4gb on a winxp box. I have a humble pair of krk 5s in a mostly untreated room.

My questions: Am I going to see improved results (soundwise) with the LE and 003 over m-powered with 1814? And if yes how so?

Thanks!

Re: 003 vs. M-audio firewire 1814
 

In general, the preamps and converters in the 003/003R are better than those in the M-Audio Firewire 1814. Now "better" is a highly subjective term here. By "better" I mean that they are a newer generation of electronics and components and also have technically superior specifications. I believe that they are quieter. Whether they sound "better" is up to you and your ears. You are not getting any additional functionality going from Protools M-Powered to Protools LE so the benefits of switching are small. Personally, I would use the money for room acoustic treatment or microphones instead.

Re: 003 vs. M-audio firewire 1814
 

Well this thread didn't really catch on, but I've had the 003 for a few days now and I just wanted to post what I have found just in case someone has the same question.

So here is what I've found.

pro's:

Pre-amps - infinitely better then the 1814. 1814 sounded very thin and metalic. While I know its a matter of opinion, and most users here seem not really like the oo3 pre amps and upgrade. For me it was a big step up.

Monitoring - Again a matter of opinion, but the oo3 sounds much better with a lot more detail. Nothing else in my studio has changed. Same room, same monitors, but much more defined high end and general clarity. Even when when listening to music (not mine) on my itunes.

Knobs - The 1814 knobs can just keep turning, 360 and 360 again. So if you wanted to return to a gain setting or a headphone/monitor volume it would pretty hard.

There obviously many other pro's but I think these points i could only have discovered by using a 003.


con's:

Not much really.

Doesn't work with some of my non-pro apps that require audio.

Only one program can use audio at a time.

Can't play 24bit audio with quicktime or itunes. (6 or 7)

Had to rebuild my computer, as uninstaling m-powered and then installing LE produced bad results.

Thats all I got now.