Sound quality issues anybody??
 

I just switched over to PTLE and the digi001 from the 2408. Now, I changed a couple things in my setup at the same time, so I don't know what the problem is. The 001 sounds tremendously bright and ugly. right around 2Khz there seems to be a huge bump...the slope goes down around 900hz, and up to about 6khz...and ideas???? Here's my old setup, and here's my new setup.

OLD:
motu2408 into mackie 1604vlz, to halfler p3000, to Tannoy PBM 8 monitors.

New: Digi001 straight to Halfler p3000, to Tannoy PBM8's.

Now, I just had the tweeters replaced on the PBM-8's, but I didn't notice any problems when listening to a cd through the mackie. When I listen to a cd from my computer out of the digi001 it sounds really bad....and bright and nasty. When I listen to cd through the analog ins of 001, it sound relatively the same. I took 2khz down about 4.5 dB, and it sounded better...but I shouldn't have to eq my output, nor do I want to.

Please tell me if anyone else has noticed this, or if this seems abnormal.

Thanks!!!!

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

lison,

I have not noticed the 001 to color the sound significantly. Hardly at all, actually, and I'm using it in a pro studio environment.

Could there be an unbalanced-to-balanced wiring issue between the 001 and the Tannoys? Sometimes that can cause the symptoms you've described.

Good luck,

Jeff D.

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

No, it's not wiring, I've checked all that. Plus I ran that cd player through the mackie and it sounded fine. Any others? I'm using the monitor output control built into the 001...has anybody else noticed that with this particular system??

BTW, I'm using Jam to monitor the CD through the digi001 when monitoring direct from my computer. I have a UMAXs900 with g3 360mhz upgrade, and 224 megs of ram. Have two internal 7200 western digital scsi drives.

Lastly the bass sounds nice, and everything sounds smooth...just that nasty bump around 2khz




[This message has been edited by lison44 (edited September 22, 2000).]

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

How does it sound through the headphone jack on the front of the 001?

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

44--I can't imagine why you run almost everything thru the mackie but not the .001.
I run outputs 1 & 2 thru 2 channels of my mixer and it sounds consistent with my CD ETC. I do not have any mixer EQ engaged. I also have a Berringer 8024 in line with my alesis M1's and I find the dual 31 bands a necessity for the M1's and the acoustic issues present with most "under $100,000 studio's. I think the .001 wants to see a pre-amp before the speakers to make things warm and fuzzy....JT

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

First off, I run nothing through the mackie anymore. I'm trying to phase it completely out of my studio. I don't want an analog mixer in my path. I'm taking the CD and playing it on my computer. In the future I will just run it spdif into the digi001. I'm just not there yet (I just bought the 001).

Well, I figure the less things in the path of the output, the less likely the sound will become colored. At any rate, I shouldn't have to run my outputs to a preamp to make it sound good...I doubt that's it. Plus, the mackie preamps and line amps suck. They sound very harsh, brittle, boxish, and 2 dimentional to me. They couldn't keep a turd warm. Sorry, couldn't resist that analogy.

The Mackie certainly wouldn't (and I checked doesn't) get rid of my upper mid problems, the Mackie has upper mid distortion and clarity issues itself. That's the reason I opt not to do that. The digi001 was designed with people like me in mind that want to go directly to an amp and speakers...or people with powered monitors. It has a monitor pot built right into it just for people who don't want to deal with the mackie sound. Half the reason I went with the 001 is so that I can get rid of the Mackie all together.

Oh, and I am not able to find my reference headphones (I just got back from doing a remote session...and everything is in boxes) so I'll have to fish them out and check that one.

Thanks for all of the suggestions...keep them coming!!!

[This message has been edited by lison44 (edited September 23, 2000).]

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

I actually had an A/B test done for me, and hands down, I thought the 001 creamed the 2408. Granted, my experience is not going as well now. Spec wise, yes the 001 is beaten by the 2408, but in the A/B I heard there was no contest, 001 won all the way. I've done several projects on the 2408 (none on the 001 yet) and I'm not happy at all with the sound of the converters. They're good, but they're not Grrrreat. The 001's sounded better, not great either though. I highly doubt that the converters on the 001 are supposed to have around a 4.5 db boost in 2 khz. Hell, that's worse than black face adats.

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

I'm going out SPDIF and into my TMD-1000, which is doing the A to D conversion and sounds fine. I second the motion of trying to A to D convert it using a 3rd party A to D converter or a digital mixer.

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

CD playback through my 001 sounds great. I have a G4, and it does digital-audio-extraction playback.

You have an older Mac-Clone, it probably is playing back either via analog (really skanky on most computer CD drives) or by digital extraction on a drive which may or may not be doing a good job of extracting the audio.

Re: Sound quality issues anybody??
 

Always a subjective issue, but even if you try and compare paper specifications, it's still difficult to know which is the "better". The Motu site only quotes the A-weighted dynamic range (105db) where the Digi spec is more honest by giving the true figures (98db). From this, it's always possible that the Digi001 has "better" figures but motu won't give a non A-weighted figure and Digi doesn't publish an A-weighted value... Hmmmm.

The remainder of the electrical details are omitted from the Motu site which is a shame.

At the end of the day, it's down to trusting your ears and as there are so many other factors that can affect the sound quality (monitors, speaker cables, even oxide deposits on mains plugs, etc) it's gets really difficult to make an objective decision.

Not sure if that helps, but thought I'd chip in!

Cheers,

Mike