Does anybody here own a Focusrite RED thunderbolt interface?

I have "heared" that these "sound as good as the Apogee Symphonies" from people that have them.  Specs are really good, design details seem very high end.

The fact that it gets so much analog I/O in one rack space, without needing extra ADAT or SPDIF expansion, is incredible to me.  Although, of course, those features are available AS WELL!

Driver wise, it would be pretty much the same story as my Clarett.  I would have to move my UAD stuff to Satellites rather than Apollos because I'd be selling the Apollos.  I never really have used too much of the real time plugin tracking with Apollo.  Just don't use it, don't know why.  Still do love the UAD plugins, however, and the question of Unison preamps versus the RED preamps would be a question to ask about quality and comparison.

I guess I just like my Clarett so much that I fantasize about moving up to the Focusrite "High End" of things, since their low and middle ends are already so good to me.

It is doubtful that this would make much impact on my workflow rather than simplifying routing and switching.  Might save me from lusting after Lyxn Hilos and things like that if the main DAC is "that good."

It just looks, to me, like this is the current best all-in-one thunderbolt interface out there, for my tastes and needs.

I guess it's not much different from me looking at sports cars and nice houses, really.  If anyone has one and loves it, that would just fuel my fantasy even more.

I am perfectly happy using what I have now, I just haven't seen a lot of chatter about these.  Even since CLA has adopted them.  Seems a little under the radar at the moment.

It is a very feature-rich interface! I nearly purchased one last week but went with an Apollo 8P instead. The advantage of the Red 8Pre was having 8 preamps PLUS 8 line inputs in a single unit. With the 8P, I'm restricted to 8 pre/line combo jacks, so if I want 16 channels I either have to use ADAT or purchase an additional Apollo unit.

My experience with Focusrite's A/D has been pretty good too, having owned an ISA 428 MKII with the ADC card in it. While the preamps on it were ok, the real strength of the unit was in the ADC. It provided 4 extra channels of A/D conversion so I could connect my external preamps into it and then run to my interface via ADAT. I greatly preferred the sound of this over the line-ins on my MOTU 1248. Being so much newer, I would expect the A/D on the Red 8Pre to be even better than the ADC on the 428.

This does not have transformer coupled preamps, 8 Of Them no less ... 8 transformer coupled preamps would be more than $3500... Aurora Audio GTP8 is $5k...

From Focusrite Red 8 Pre blurbs:
“ They also include our unique ‘Air’ effect, recreating the sound of the transformer-based mic preamps in the ISA and original Red ranges. When ‘Air’ is enabled, the microphone impedance is lowered and the sound is given a subtle mid-high boost – all in the analogue domain. “

The Red Evolution mic pres in the Red Range include the ‘Air’ function. ‘Air’ is a purely analogue effect that emulates the sound of the transformer-based mic preamps of the ISA range, the foundations of Focusrite’s “Heritage Sound”.

“'Air' recreates the sound-shaping effect of the classic ISA transformer, by using an authentic analogue model of the original transformer-based preamp design. Engaging 'Air' reconfigures the three-stage preamp signal chain to switch in the correct transformer-style input impedance, followed by a linear gain stage, and finally inserting a passive frequency-shaping stage to recreate the tight low end and elevated high-end response – thus creating the effect described by our customers as the classic 'Air' sound of the heritage Focusrite mic pre.“

The Red 16Line is really what I've been trying to find for a long time: 16 analog line ins and line outs - an additional 2 outs for monitoring - plus 16 of ins and outs on ADAT (at 48kHz - I assume you could do 8 in/out at 96kHz). Apparently you can add 32 more ins and outs via Dante if you've got an interface that'll do it (like another Red 16Line, for example).

This interface is basically saying "use me with a console."

What it whispers to me, though, is "you can track a whole band at 96kHz without a big mess of boxes and drivers all hoping to speak to each other happily." I dig that.

The transformer option wouldn't had increased the price by that much...... Focusrite buys a ton of trannies from Lundahl as it already is, incorporating that into this box would had been pretty easy and I'd imagine most folks wouldn't mind the extra couple hundred. They've emulated it, which to me is just lousy way to cut a corner. 

Knowing that just makes it a no buy for me. Knowing what MOTU is accomplishing out there for a fraction of the price with ESS Sabre conversion...... MOTU is kicking ass right now. They just came out with the 828es which gives you a ton of functionality, pre's, Sabre conversion and ethernet expansion for $1k? Freaking amazing and respect the hell out of a company producing gear of that quality and keeping it insanely affordable. 

jcoutu1
If that were the original ISA then yeah but that’s not and the gtp8 is definitely amazing sounding... AMAZING ( sounds better than The gtq2 to me )

Jerome I get what your saying, but isn't watering down the original ISA & RED range Focusrite's entire Buisness model of the last 30 years?
That said the RED digital range is probably the best products they have designed in years!

I remember putting a made in China isa430MKII against a UK Made ISA430 something g was lost in translation, it was like somebody put a scrim over everything!
Understand they need to make $ , but man come on !