Avid i/o vs Audient 880 A/D conversion? Anyone have thoughts?

[Ru_C]

Hi all, I recently picked up a pair of used Avid 16x16 i/o units to give me 32 analog in's & outs.

My old setup was a mixtures of '192 Digital' units & Audient+Apogee AD16/DA16 converters.

So to my question.

Previously I routed a pair of Audient 880's digitally into the back of the first 'Digi 192D'.
As my new AVID i/o interfaces only have banks of analog inputs, it looks like i'll be taking that route from the 880's into the Avid i/o (unless I spend more money swapping the analog cards for digital ones on the Avid rack).

Does anyone have an opinion if the A/D conversion on the Avid i/o will be better , worse, or indistinguishable from the Audient conversion? (obviously I should a/b this myself but i'm very busy lol)

Cheers

[djjazzy41]

Originally Posted by Ru_C

Hi all, I recently picked up a pair of used Avid 16x16 i/o units to give me 32 analog in's & outs.

My old setup was a mixtures of '192 Digital' units & Audient+Apogee AD16/DA16 converters.

So to my question.

Previously I routed a pair of Audient 880's digitally into the back of the first 'Digi 192D'.
As my new AVID i/o interfaces only have banks of analog inputs, it looks like i'll be taking that route from the 880's into the Avid i/o (unless I spend more money swapping the analog cards for digital ones on the Avid rack).

Does anyone have an opinion if the A/D conversion on the Avid i/o will be better , worse, or indistinguishable from the Audient conversion? (obviously I should a/b this myself but i'm very busy lol)

Cheers

I have 3 HD/ios and an Audient ASP880 that I run in via ADAT. I can tell you that I have been very happy with both sets of converters. I thought that I would prefer the Avid boxes, as they were supposed to be "the greatest" (arguable, I know), and they are certainly really, really good. I was surprised at how well the Audient ASP880 converters performed, however. In my opinion, no dropoff whatsoever, so I believe you will be happy whether using the Audient converters or the Avid ones. I do know that if you drop down to the Audient ASP800 box the converters are not the same grade as those put into the 880. Hopefully this helps, but in my opinion you won't hear much if any difference between the two.

[albee1952]

The only "advantage"(in quotes as I'm not sure its actually good, bad or doesn't matter) to using only the 192 converters is that all will be sample-accurate for timing. When mixing converters, its possible that different brands might have slightly(on the order of micro-seconds) more or less latency. If you are feeding all the outputs to a console(mixing outside the box) and you had, say a batch of drum tracks, and some came thru the 192 converters, while other channels came thru the Audient converters, you might get some phasing issues. You can certainly make hit recordings with either or both

I use a Midas XL48 for my drum "shell" channels and started with it connected via lightpipe. Now I run it analog(overheads are thru a Focusrite ISA428 via analog) and I can't say I hear any difference(I mix all ITB)

[Ru_C]

Originally Posted by albee1952

The only "advantage"(in quotes as I'm not sure its actually good, bad or doesn't matter) to using only the 192 converters is that all will be sample-accurate for timing. When mixing converters, its possible that different brands might have slightly(on the order of micro-seconds) more or less latency.

Cheers both for the replies...yeah the timing thing is a good point...I wouldn't split an instruments between two converters anyway...but its still nice to know they are both sample accurate with each other....

[Ru_C]

p.s what are your thoughts on the 'soft limit' function? is it helpful/musical, or best switched off?..i've always liked it on my Apogee AD16 as a safety-net, although I obviously avoid having it kick in whenever possible..

[JFreak]

I always have soft limit turned off, because whenever I would have hit it, I have already tracked too hot.

Just a reminder...

24bit WAV has 144dB dynamics. Your converter has "124dB" if it's really good. That means 144-124=20dB headroom if you use the full potential of your AD converter. Which means if you track hotter than -20dBFS you're only amplifying noise and going too hot means trouble for your converter anyway.

Yellow is the new red. Period!

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Yellow is the new red. Period!

I know that sounds cute and easy to remember, but those color bars are changed or can be changed in the preferences dialogue.

Give him a number don't give him a catchy phrase

-20 to -14 is fine that is the new yellow

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by YYR123

-20 to -14 is fine that is the new yellow

Yes! That is already on "red" if your converter is not better than +124dB

[YYR123]

That's why I said give him a number, b/c color doesn't mean too much