Mbox 2 PRO preamp fidelity?

[Mix Master Factories]

Hi! I read in a promotional paper that the Mbox Pro had the same preamps as the 003 (which I doubt). But anyway, it got me thinking.

I'm considering taking a step up from the regular Mbox to the PRO. I'm not so much interested in the extra inputs. But I'm wondering if there is a noticable bump in preamp quality and A/D converting. Of course time stamping, word clock, and a few extra inputs are an added bonus.
But then again I could just buy a dedicated preamp such as the Focusrite ISA ONE and connect it through SPDIF in my regular Mbox. My only worry here is the lack of word clock in my regular Mbox.

This might seem conoluted, but I would greatly appreciate some advice!

[albee1952]

I would expect the preamps to be very similar throughout the range of DIG hardware that is now in production as the engineering and R&D are much the same(maybe ALL the same?). Now the original Mbox had cheap Focusrite preamps based on the platinum range(but all the newer stuff should sound VERY similar). There are some advantages to the Mbox 2 PRO that you may be unaware of. The firewire interface allows for both Low Latency Monitoring AND a buffer setting of 64(32 on Macs) and those facts can be a big help in overdubbing and punching in(and alone, are worth the price IMHO). The other thing to think about is using the SPDIF input. I get the impression you might like to (eventually anyway) go with some high-end preamp to up your quality level. By using a SPDIF A>D converter box, you are open to using ANY preamp you want(and there are many great preamps available). You also have the option of one of several preamps with on-board SPDIF. You mentioned the Focusrite ISA-ONE and while its a nice preamp, I would not rate it in the "great" category(and I use the ISA-428 myself). I would check out a couple of others that have either more character, or more features(more money, but worth it). Look at the Avalon 737SP(no SPDIF but a great recording "channel strip". Also the API A2D(2 killer API preamps with high end converters and SPDIF). Some other really great preamps can be had from Great River, Vintech, grace and Doug Fearn. Just food for thought

[Mix Master Factories]

Hi! Thanks for the reply.
Right now I'm leaning towards getting a nice preamp and connecting it to my Mbox 2 through SPDIF.
I don't really need low latency monitoring as I can turn the buffer down to 64 and disable my plug-ins manually.
So I'm left with two questions:

1. Will the lack of a word clock make it hard to connect my Mbox to a preamp?
2. Is it possible to send more than two channels of audio simultaneously to the SPDIF input of any of the Mboxes?

[MetalMike]

The pre's in the mbox 2 pro are WAY better than the usb. Trust me. I've used the pro for two years and then messed around with the regular mbox 2 and it sounds like garbage compared to the pro.