192 Expansion Cards

[Martin Adriaanse]

Are 192i/o AD expansion cards *EXACTLY* identical to the "stock" analog inputs of a 192i/o? In other words, are the electronics and AD converter of these expansion cards the same as the analog inputs that come with the 192i/o?

Also, power supply wise, is it better to run 2 192i/o's, or will one 192 with an expansion card work just as well if my goal is to have 16 analog inputs? I know power supplies - and how hard they have to work - can have a big impact on audio quality.

Many Thanks,

Martin

[scotsman]

Martin,

Yes, I added the AD card to give 8 additional inputs on my 192 to give 16 ins and 8 outputs.
The 8 extra appear in the hardware section as channel 9-16 and you can adjust them the same as channels 1-8. All sound the same.

Can't comment on the power supply, but would be surprised if Digi compromised their flagship convertor in any way, by saving a few $s in the power supply. From reading the equipment logs in various studios, adding an extra AD card is quite common and is recommended by Digi.

What I would like is to be able to remove the digital card and replace it with a 8 DA card to give the extra analogue outputs. But heard that there is some hard or soft wiring which stops this ?

Digi, please comment, could this be possible ?

regards
Scotsman

[DigiTechSupt]

What I would like is to be able to remove the digital card and replace it with a 8 DA card to give the extra analogue outputs. But heard that there is some hard or soft wiring which stops this ?

The Digital card slot can only be used for the Digital card. It can also be left empty but inserting an analog AD or DA card will cause Pro Tools to lose communication with the interface on launch.

regards,
Digidesign Technical Support

[scotsman]

Thanks, confirmed what I had heard.

If you could fix this communication problem (ie a software revision upgrade?) then would imagine that there would be many like me who would buy that extra card, in a flash.
Does that temp the marketing & R&D team ?

regards
Scotsman

[scottgreiner]

Thanks, confirmed what I had heard.

If you could fix this communication problem (ie a software revision upgrade?) then would imagine that there would be many like me who would buy that extra card, in a flash.
Does that temp the marketing & R&D team ?

regards
Scotsman

Count my vote - I'd buy an extra A/D card in a heartbeat and loose the AES card if it was possible.

[roberts]

I wanted to get 16 analog I/O out of my 192 as well and the only way I found it was possible was to add a Rosetta 800 It was about $700.00 more than the cost of 2 (A/D-D/A) cards but still cheaper than buying another 192.

[Duardo]

Does that temp the marketing & R&D team ?

I doubt it...I'm sure that they're less tempted by the idea of selling a few more $1200 cards than selling a few more $4000 interfaces.

It's actually pretty convenient, though, if you're looking for a 24 I/O setup...two 192's, one A/D and one D/A card...

-Duardo