|
Post by kcatthedog on Jul 10, 2018 6:28:48 GMT -6
There is a separate thread, Svart made a ad/da box and sold it through RGO, but I think he sold his run, so they are sometimes available used.
|
|
|
Post by bigbone on Jul 10, 2018 12:46:26 GMT -6
So at the end. Apogee or UAD. ? I guess to each his own . !!!!
|
|
|
Post by NoFilterChuck on Jul 10, 2018 14:22:24 GMT -6
It's an AD/DA converter by svart
|
|
|
Post by svart on Jul 10, 2018 14:26:19 GMT -6
There is a separate thread, Svart made a ad/da box and sold it through RGO, but I think he sold his run, so they are sometimes available used. At one point it was the most read thread on the site! I have no idea where it stands today though. I no longer sell them, but I do have a two full chassis and a box of parts kicking around. I wonder if I have enough to finish two units? Maybe one day there will be more!
|
|
|
Post by lando on Jul 10, 2018 16:28:06 GMT -6
Thanks for info Svart and all, and once again sorry for the derail. I couldn't find the thread, found a "Svart secret project" one, but it was hard to decipher after all this time and long discussions Sounds very interesting and cool!
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on Jul 11, 2018 8:24:28 GMT -6
There is a separate thread, Svart made a ad/da box and sold it through RGO, but I think he sold his run, so they are sometimes available used. At one point it was the most read thread on the site! I have no idea where it stands today though. I no longer sell them, but I do have a two full chassis and a box of parts kicking around. I wonder if I have enough to finish two units? Maybe one day there will be more! Still think you should have sold the design and used the dough to fund something even sexier.
|
|
|
Post by indiehouse on Jul 13, 2018 21:29:45 GMT -6
So, I picked up a second-hand Motu 16a from Eric of Locomotive Audio. I just spent the last hour going back and forth between my Symphony MKII via a speaker switcher. Granted I was just playing from iTunes, but I'm not picking out an appreciable difference here. Certainly not a $2600 difference. If I HAD to nitpick, I'd say the Symphony was a hair more relaxed/effortless/transparent sounding. But I'm talking a hair. I heard no appreciable difference in width or depth. Could be the bottom was a hair tighter on the Symph and the top a tad extended. Again, I'm searching for stuff to differentiate. I'm listening on Amphion One15's/Parasound A21. I don't have golden ears or a tuned room. It is fairly well treated with over a dozen 703/705 panels. I do remember the first time I plugged my RM Superbeast into my Apollo silver. That was a difference that made me go "whoa". This one? Not so much. II suppose I could rock this S2 for DAC playback.
I'm thinking of things that $2600 could buy that would have a greater impact than a minuscule difference in conversion. Coil Audio tube pre? 24 channels of Motu conversion into a CAPI SumBus? A Jeff Hedback designed room (or at least cover his design fees). Actually, I probably owe Stam at least that much coming up.
Hmmm...I'm all about bang for the buck lately.
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on Jul 13, 2018 22:12:34 GMT -6
Yeah...I’m thinking similarly. One thing I wonder though is what he next 6 months will bring.
|
|
|
Post by NoFilterChuck on Jul 13, 2018 22:23:00 GMT -6
you know, I kept trying to see if we could get a better deal on a lot of the stuff we had to buy for our upcoming firstborn. eventually, my wife said to me "just make your mind up and be done with it. buy it and don't look back. otherwise, you'll always be living in doubt about your purchase." That same mentality should probably be applied here. Look how many studios still run Avid 192's or old Lynx Aurora's.
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on Jul 13, 2018 23:47:25 GMT -6
you know, I kept trying to see if we could get a better deal on a lot of the stuff we had to buy for our upcoming firstborn. eventually, my wife said to me "just make your mind up and be done with it. buy it and don't look back. otherwise, you'll always be living in doubt about your purchase." That same mentality should probably be applied here. Look how many studios still run Avid 192's or old Lynx Aurora's. Did your wife know that you were buying a stroller that was $1000 more than a stroller that was literally just like it?
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on Jul 13, 2018 23:52:45 GMT -6
So, I picked up a second-hand Motu 16a from Eric of Locomotive Audio. I just spent the last hour going back and forth between my Symphony MKII via a speaker switcher. Granted I was just playing from iTunes, but I'm not picking out an appreciable difference here. Certainly not a $2600 difference. If I HAD to nitpick, I'd say the Symphony was a hair more relaxed/effortless/transparent sounding. But I'm talking a hair. I heard no appreciable difference in width or depth. Could be the bottom was a hair tighter on the Symph and the top a tad extended. Again, I'm searching for stuff to differentiate. I'm listening on Amphion One15's/Parasound A21. I don't have golden ears or a tuned room. It is fairly well treated with over a dozen 703/705 panels. I do remember the first time I plugged my RM Superbeast into my Apollo silver. That was a difference that made me go "whoa". This one? Not so much. II suppose I could rock this S2 for DAC playback. I'm thinking of things that $2600 could buy that would have a greater impact than a minuscule difference in conversion. Coil Audio tube pre? 24 channels of Motu conversion into a CAPI SumBus? A Jeff Hedback designed room (or at least cover his design fees). Actually, I probably owe Stam at least that much coming up. Hmmm...I'm all about bang for the buck lately. What is the software like? Better than Symphony Control? Did I read somewhere it had dsp?
|
|
|
Post by NoFilterChuck on Jul 14, 2018 1:03:47 GMT -6
you know, I kept trying to see if we could get a better deal on a lot of the stuff we had to buy for our upcoming firstborn. eventually, my wife said to me "just make your mind up and be done with it. buy it and don't look back. otherwise, you'll always be living in doubt about your purchase." That same mentality should probably be applied here. Look how many studios still run Avid 192's or old Lynx Aurora's. Did your wife know that you were buying a stroller that was $1000 more than a stroller that was literally just like it? lol If you really wanted to know, you'd just send your symphony and apollo and motu to Jim Williams and let him go over them with a fine-toothed comb and see what he discovers. Then you'd know which one to get.
|
|
|
Post by indiehouse on Jul 14, 2018 5:19:17 GMT -6
Did your wife know that you were buying a stroller that was $1000 more than a stroller that was literally just like it? lol If you really wanted to know, you'd just send your symphony and apollo and motu to Jim Williams and let him go over them with a fine-toothed comb and see what he discovers. Then you'd know which one to get. Or just listen.
|
|
|
Post by indiehouse on Jul 14, 2018 5:23:43 GMT -6
So, I picked up a second-hand Motu 16a from Eric of Locomotive Audio. I just spent the last hour going back and forth between my Symphony MKII via a speaker switcher. Granted I was just playing from iTunes, but I'm not picking out an appreciable difference here. Certainly not a $2600 difference. If I HAD to nitpick, I'd say the Symphony was a hair more relaxed/effortless/transparent sounding. But I'm talking a hair. I heard no appreciable difference in width or depth. Could be the bottom was a hair tighter on the Symph and the top a tad extended. Again, I'm searching for stuff to differentiate. I'm listening on Amphion One15's/Parasound A21. I don't have golden ears or a tuned room. It is fairly well treated with over a dozen 703/705 panels. I do remember the first time I plugged my RM Superbeast into my Apollo silver. That was a difference that made me go "whoa". This one? Not so much. II suppose I could rock this S2 for DAC playback. I'm thinking of things that $2600 could buy that would have a greater impact than a minuscule difference in conversion. Coil Audio tube pre? 24 channels of Motu conversion into a CAPI SumBus? A Jeff Hedback designed room (or at least cover his design fees). Actually, I probably owe Stam at least that much coming up. Hmmm...I'm all about bang for the buck lately. What is the software like? Better than Symphony Control? Did I read somewhere it had dsp? I didn’t get in too deep, just enough for playback. I did get it going right off the bat, though. So it’s intuitive enough. I remember fighting through the convolution with the Symphony software on my first go. Couldn’t even get playback the first night on the Control software. Motu seems to be leaps and bounds more flexible. And I do think it’s got DSP.
|
|
|
Post by indiehouse on Jul 14, 2018 5:27:27 GMT -6
Yeah...I’m thinking similarly. One thing I wonder though is what he next 6 months will bring. . That was on my mind, too. Motu literally just released a new interface with the same ESS chips. Makes me think they’re sticking with it. I could see UAD dropping something, but I figure they’d focus more on dsp and maybe upping the specs a smidge, but then you’d not be saving any money over the Symphony. Just a better workflow.
|
|
|
Post by indiehouse on Jul 14, 2018 5:33:43 GMT -6
I’m not saying there’s no difference. There is. After one night of testing, my thought is, for me, its not a $2600 difference. Well, make that a $3100 difference. I bought a 2x6 MKI card to utilize digital I/O, because Apogee makes you eat analog I/O to use SPDIF. With Motu, I get tons digital I/O on top of my 16 analog.
I haven’t compared the AD, though, which is a little more difficult.
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Jul 14, 2018 5:46:16 GMT -6
Interesting that the motu set up went so well. I have read lots of horror stories about its software but perhaps that was earlier versions ?
|
|
|
Post by Martin John Butler on Jul 14, 2018 7:31:59 GMT -6
How is it that a company with smart people in it makes a product that has such flaws that a much less expensive piece doesn't?
|
|
|
Post by indiehouse on Jul 14, 2018 7:45:57 GMT -6
How is it that a company with smart people in it makes a product that has such flaws that a much less expensive piece doesn't? ?
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Jul 14, 2018 9:04:36 GMT -6
Flaws ? kind of s strong word I think we all have preferences in terms of workflow and we will then like or dislike pieces of gear for what ever reasons. I look forward to finding out about the next apollo but now that I am out of that world and in the apogee symphony mk ii world, it will take an awful lot to get me to budge. I am getting my master symph mkii tracks back from Justin and things sound fine. The symphony costs what it costs but you get excellent AD and DA and I also really appreciate the headphone sound quality, so for me its a great stand alone system: YMMV !
|
|
|
Post by mikec on Jul 14, 2018 9:54:54 GMT -6
Flaws ? kind of s strong word I think we all have preferences in terms of workflow and we will then like or dislike pieces of gear for what ever reasons. I look forward to finding out about the next apollo but now that I am out of that world and in the apogee symphony mk ii world, it will take an awful lot to get me to budge. I am getting my master symph mkii tracks back from Justin and things sound fine. The symphony costs what it costs but you get excellent AD and DA and I also really appreciate the headphone sound quality, so for me its a great stand alone system: YMMV ! Very well put Kcat. After going through the Lynx Aurora setup, the Metric Halo ULN8, and all three of the BF Apollos, I no longer lust for any other interface since I got my Symphony MKII decked out with the 2x6SE and 16x16 modules. Would it meet everyone's need?, no way, but it meets everything I need and more. The only one of the bunch I would personally think of going back to if my Symphony was stolen would probably be the ULN8. Nevertheless, we live in a great time with something to meet every budget and need in the interface world and the interfaces today are one of the last things that should keep people from making great music.
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on Jul 14, 2018 10:05:23 GMT -6
No one is saying the Symphony isn’t good...it’s just a conversation about expense vs. end result. I don’t know if I want to go through the hassle of changing again, honestly...but $1000 is a $1000
|
|
|
Post by yotonic on Jul 14, 2018 10:07:48 GMT -6
Motu makes a great box. The difference in converters now today is almost an EQ curve more than anything else, and God knows if it's on purpose from an analog stage or just happenstance.
|
|
|
Post by ragan on Jul 14, 2018 11:00:13 GMT -6
Motu makes a great box. The difference in converters now today is almost an EQ curve more than anything else, and God knows if it's on purpose from an analog stage or just happenstance. I think it’s a lot more than an EQ curve, myself. In the comparisons I’ve done, the differences in converters are mostly spatially oriented. Where do things sit, how distinct are they from one another when you pile it all up, etc. It’s nebulous by nature, describing these things, but I’ve come to think conversion is indeed a big deal. How much things are worth to all of our various budgets, workflows, needs/wants, etc is of cours totally subjective.
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Jul 14, 2018 11:14:41 GMT -6
Ya I get it. I find the time it takes to get to know if an interface is the right one for you challenging, but guess that is the price of admission ?
It’s invaluable to read about the experience of other’s too!
|
|