ad8000 Rolls Converters ?

[theloy]

I just buy an ad8000-SE and did a few recordings,
i record bass and guitar directly on the Mbox and compare with ad 8000 recordings and was really amazed ,
sound is more clear (less deep)on the Mbox than the ad8000?
Does the absence of preamp in the 2nd case can explain this amazing result?
I must precise D/A conversion is made in all cases by the Mbox and not by the ad8000

I intend to buy a Rnp Fmr but i thought just an ad8000 could be largely superior to Mbox even without preamp
Your advices interest me, i am a bit disapointed
by what i consider one of the Rolls converters

[daryl bowden]

Well, I gotta tell you the ad-8000se is one of the finest a/d boxes there is out there. I have used an mbox and an ad8000 and there is no comparison, the ad8000 is far superior. I assume you know that you can't track guitar or bass directly into the ad8000, you need an external preamp and your chain would go guitar->preamp->apogee ad8000->Computer. If you are trying to record directly into the ad8000 that would be your problem, either that or you somehow prefer the sound of the mboxes convertors (which I can't figure out).

[Gabriel Roth]

what you've discovered is this:

bad preamp + bad converter
is better than
no preamp + good converter.

few will be surprised by this result.

[theloy]

Thanks for your advices
I am sure in fact that with a preamp ,i will largely increase the quality of my tracks
In other hand,i don't achieve to playback my tracks thru the ad8000 and think it would be better then my Mbox
I intend to buy a Fmr audio preamp very soon and hope it will make the big deal !!!hope it is a good choice ....
cheers