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  #11  
Old 07-22-2022, 02:20 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

You can compare this to the Current RME Fireface 802/UFC II/UFX+ models, all of which have 4 mic preamps (and extra line inputs) but prices take a significant jump to what you can hopefully get a used Fireface 800 for. The Fireface 802 is the direct replacement for the 800, but it's ~US$2,000 and once you start paying that much I actually think the UFC II or UFX+ are better choices. Don't get gear lust suckered into spending all your budget on an interface unless you have mics, and monitors, and all the other gear to get stuff done.
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  #12  
Old 07-22-2022, 03:58 AM
FidelB FidelB is offline
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

I am finally between RME fireface 802 or apogee ensemble thunderbolt. Both second-hand at the same price with well-rated sellers and classified as "impeccable". Please someone give me the final push..
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  #13  
Old 07-22-2022, 08:13 AM
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

Whatever you choose, if you find yourself needing more Mic preamps, you could always add a cheap Behringer ADA8200 8 channel mic pre. They are only $219.

Sure, the preamps won't be the best you can get, but they will be more than fine if you are recording drums.

That would give you more options to buy an interface with less than 8 mic preamps and still add those 8 inputs back for a few bucks.

And I'm with Darryl here. If you're going to spend the money for the 802, I'd spend a bit more and get the UFX+. It will serve you better in the long run.
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  #14  
Old 07-23-2022, 07:39 AM
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albee1952 albee1952 is offline
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

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Originally Posted by Benoni View Post
Whatever you choose, if you find yourself needing more Mic preamps, you could always add a cheap Behringer ADA8200 8 channel mic pre. They are only $219.

Sure, the preamps won't be the best you can get, but they will be more than fine if you are recording drums.
This is the best "budget" lightpipe preamp on the market. For closer to $900, the Midas XL48 is absolutely killer on drums
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  #15  
Old 07-26-2022, 01:43 PM
Skytouch Skytouch is offline
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

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How much do you want to spend?

Generally, the more you spend, the better the preamps will be.

Are you using any hard to drive dynamic or ribbon mics?

I ask because it may be important to consider the total gain level of the built-in preamps since you don't want to add any external preamps yet. Although you could always add a cloudlifter if you need a boost for a couple mics.

The "sound" of preamps can be a personal thing. I really love the sound of the Audient console preamps in the iD44 MKII, but that unit only has 4 analog mic inputs and you would need to add an external Optical Mic Pre if you wanted 8.

Again, if we knew your price range we could give better suggestions.

An 8 input audio interface can range between $500 and $5000+
Hi Benoni, perhaps you can help answer an RME question. I'm considering UFX II for my next interface, but the one feature it lacks compared to UCX II is SteadyClock FS. Is this enough of a reason to go with UCXII instead? The UFXII otherwise checks a lot of boxes for me, coming from an Avid Omni.

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  #16  
Old 07-28-2022, 09:25 AM
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

I'm not familiar enough with SteadyClock FS to say if it really makes an audible difference. I would go with the one that has the most features you need.
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  #17  
Old 07-28-2022, 12:25 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

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Originally Posted by Skytouch View Post
Hi Benoni, perhaps you can help answer an RME question. I'm considering UFX II for my next interface, but the one feature it lacks compared to UCX II is SteadyClock FS. Is this enough of a reason to go with UCXII instead? The UFXII otherwise checks a lot of boxes for me, coming from an Avid Omni.
The UFX II has "SteadyClock". All RME interfaces have had SteadyClock for something like 20 years now, across multiple versions of that technology. And since SteadyClock is external clock stabilization it only has any affect if clocking from an external clock/digital signal and will only make any appreciable difference if that external digital signal/clock is low quality.

And if anybody is really worrying about if an RME interface has SteadyClock 2 or SteadyClock 3 or SteadyClock FS we'll likely find them masturbating to "audiophile" magazines (a market RME is now trying to sell to, sigh. Which is why they are pushing claims about FS specs... largely to that idiot market).
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  #18  
Old 07-28-2022, 12:54 PM
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

Good info Darryl. I thought all RME had SteadyClock as stated on the site, but I've never used SteadyClock FS specifically.

I would assume that all RME interfaces have amazing clocking. Is FS better because the jitter spec is FemtoSecond? Maybe. Technically. But I doubt anyone would hear any improvement from the clock in the UFX II or UFX+

I would go with the interface that has the majority of features you need. For me, the UFX+ would be a better choice, but that's for my needs. YRMV.
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  #19  
Old 07-28-2022, 01:22 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

The specs on FS are in the weeds... nobody is likely to ever hear any difference between that and previous SteadyClock. Nobody is likely to ever hear any Clock related difference between any modern decent quality interface using internal clocking. The bad stuff might happen with crappy external clocks... amusingly including potentially all those old fancy hyped master clocks that people still want to use because they think they improve quality. Run enough cable, get electrical noise, AC line frequency noise, and microphonic coupling on the cable... they are going to be worse than using internal clocks in decent interfaces. So clock recovery/improvement schemes like RME have are a good idea if you have to deal with a crappy external clock. But lots of vendors do stuff in that area. But much of this is in the weeds, I doubt anybody will hear clocking jitter except when something is awfully bad on a modern components, but yes if its awful you can hear it (sat through some convincing demos injecting jitter). I do look at clock jitter/phase noise reports/reviews on components, especially some claimed "audiophile" components, some of those plots show up suspect looking problems/poor engineering with things like enormous jitter noise at mains frequency harmonics. I wish more reviews plotted measure phase noise/jitter performance, not to argue about stuff in the weeds but to find occasional products with awful performance. I run away from crap like that, if their engineers cannot get that stuff right, what else is wrong? RME products will just not have these design issues.

Last edited by Darryl Ramm; 07-28-2022 at 01:58 PM.
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  #20  
Old 07-28-2022, 10:40 PM
Skytouch Skytouch is offline
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Default Re: Buying an Interface

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Originally Posted by Benoni View Post
Good info Darryl. I thought all RME had SteadyClock as stated on the site, but I've never used SteadyClock FS specifically.

I would assume that all RME interfaces have amazing clocking. Is FS better because the jitter spec is FemtoSecond? Maybe. Technically. But I doubt anyone would hear any improvement from the clock in the UFX II or UFX+

I would go with the interface that has the majority of features you need. For me, the UFX+ would be a better choice, but that's for my needs. YRMV.
Thanks guys. This resolves my UCXII versus UFXII question. Benoni, can you share why you've chosen UFX+ over UFXII?

Thanks,
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