|
Post by jeromemason on Mar 27, 2015 18:53:06 GMT -6
Well through some fortunate events I was able to raise enough spare cash to buy a 16a and another BLA PM8. I'll have all of the 16a's outputs in use and my rack gear will be accessed through my BLA ada8000, then my summing return will be going into the BLA Sparrow and sent SPDIF into the 16a, then clocked via W/C by the Sparrow, so, I'm interested to see how it holds up. It has all the right parts inside, reading about how this is built it's no wonder everyone that owns a version of this is smitten. Also good to see it's not a honeymoon phase as most are saying they are still loving their boxes. I was really lucky on the price, I had a $70 reward credit on Amazon (that I hid from my wife ) and I found an open box unit, so, I was able to get an insane deal. Amazon sometimes is just a life saver. I also picked up the PM8 for $500 shipped from BLA so I have to say someone upstairs was looking out for me. I've still got to get my new room treated and flattened out, not to mention I'm still moving stuff from FL, but as soon as I get settled I'll run some old mixes through the new setup and give my thoughts. There are a lot of options for conversion out there these days, I'm really glad Wiz started this because I would had never known about it and probably would had gotten another apollo sans the other PM8. Motu in the past was always a product I stayed away from, but it's clear they've stepped up their game, all that's needed is to look at the specs of the gear and it's clear they knew money had to be put into the most important part, the sound.
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 5, 2015 1:59:30 GMT -6
mrmiller, I recently picked up a 16a and since the day I've plugged it in it's been stuck in Smux mode on the 2nd bank of Adat. I called into support and I never got a reason or solution, just trying to figure out if this unit is a defect or if it needs to be wiped somehow and the firmware freshly installed? I've installed all of the updates one after the other from the beginning of them, no luck. Sure hope I can get this figured out as I needed that 2nd bank for a Toslink return. Thanks! ~ Jerome
|
|
|
Post by mrmiller on Apr 5, 2015 7:57:05 GMT -6
I recently picked up a 16a and since the day I've plugged it in it's been stuck in Smux mode on the 2nd bank of Adat. I called into support and I never got a reason or solution, just trying to figure out if this unit is a defect or if it needs to be wiped somehow and the firmware freshly installed? I've installed all of the updates one after the other from the beginning of them, no luck. Sure hope I can get this figured out as I needed that 2nd bank for a Toslink return. We are limited to Toslink on Bank A for engineering reasons. As such, Bank B is stuck in ADAT mode. Does that match up with what you're seeing or am I misunderstanding what you're describing?
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 5, 2015 9:28:58 GMT -6
I recently picked up a 16a and since the day I've plugged it in it's been stuck in Smux mode on the 2nd bank of Adat. I called into support and I never got a reason or solution, just trying to figure out if this unit is a defect or if it needs to be wiped somehow and the firmware freshly installed? I've installed all of the updates one after the other from the beginning of them, no luck. Sure hope I can get this figured out as I needed that 2nd bank for a Toslink return. We are limited to Toslink on Bank A for engineering reasons. As such, Bank B is stuck in ADAT mode. Does that match up with what you're seeing or am I misunderstanding what you're describing? You're misunderstanding me. It doesn't matter what bank I run Toslink in, as long as I can run 8 channels ADAT and two spidf. But, bank "B" is stuck in SMUX mode, it will not go to normal ADAT.
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Apr 5, 2015 9:38:32 GMT -6
sounds like B is dedicated ?
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 5, 2015 11:11:59 GMT -6
I sure hope not.... says that it has 2 banks of optical ADAT...........
|
|
|
Post by mrmiller on Apr 5, 2015 11:18:45 GMT -6
I sure hope not.... says that it has 2 banks of optical ADAT........... Nope, both banks support ADAT. Out of curiosity, what sample rate are you running at?
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Apr 5, 2015 12:04:56 GMT -6
I think earlier he said 96k ?
|
|
|
Post by tonycamphd on Apr 5, 2015 12:39:11 GMT -6
I think earlier he said 96k ? not likely, in most cases adat light pipe only supports up to 48k for more than a pair of channels.
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Apr 5, 2015 13:19:05 GMT -6
understood but I wondered if your are tracking at 96 does it lock up the adats for smux ? don't mean to confuse interfaces but I think apollo does this at higher rates so since Mr miller says, it should be good but OP says no go: somethin's goin on ?
|
|
|
Post by acegunn on Apr 5, 2015 13:21:27 GMT -6
From the Motu 16A page:
ADAT digital I/O
Connect outboard digital processors, digital mixers or other gear. 16 channels at 44.1/48 kHz or 8 channels at 88.2/96 kHz.
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Apr 5, 2015 13:28:33 GMT -6
From the Motu 16A page: ADAT digital I/O Connect outboard digital processors, digital mixers or other gear. 16 channels at 44.1/48 kHz or 8 channels at 88.2/96 kHz. thx, so # of adat channels is a function of sampling rate.
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 5, 2015 16:06:19 GMT -6
I sure hope not.... says that it has 2 banks of optical ADAT........... Nope, both banks support ADAT. Out of curiosity, what sample rate are you running at? 48k One bank, bank a, runs fine in ADAT, it's just bank be that will not get out of SMUX. If you open the AVB page the option to change it from SMU X to ADAT is greyed out. Is there some way to completely wipe the firmware, and then reinstall starting from the beginning to the newest? I don't know why it's stuck in that but I can't get it to change.
|
|
|
Post by mrmiller on Apr 5, 2015 16:18:00 GMT -6
48k One bank, bank a, runs fine in ADAT, it's just bank be that will not get out of SMUX. If you open the AVB page the option to change it from SMU X to ADAT is greyed out. Is there some way to completely wipe the firmware, and then reinstall starting from the beginning to the newest? I don't know why it's stuck in that but I can't get it to change. Okay, good to know. It might be worth toggling to 96khz or 192khz and back down to 48khz to see if that will trick it into working. You can reset to the factory default settings from the front panel of the interface. Press SELECT to enter the menu then go to Settings >Factory Defaults. Press SELECT twice to reset. This will wipe all your presets so you might want to export the ones you care about. You don't need to install firmwares in order—you should just always install the latest. You can always try manually installing the latest as well but I doubt that will make a difference.
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Apr 5, 2015 17:16:23 GMT -6
Can someone explain what specifically about the new motu conversion/design makes it sound "better"?
I qualify better as unless one has two boxes side by side, its unclear what is being compared.
I respect people's experience and opinion's here. I currently run a blapollo so just want to better understand the motu design attributes ?
|
|
|
Post by tonycamphd on Apr 5, 2015 17:27:37 GMT -6
Can someone explain what specifically about the new motu conversion/design makes it sound "better"? I qualify better as unless one has two boxes side by side, its unclear what is being compared. I respect people's experience and opinion's here. I currently run a blapollo so just want to better understand the motu design attributes ? realgearonline.com/post/38132/thread
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 6, 2015 0:52:34 GMT -6
48k One bank, bank a, runs fine in ADAT, it's just bank be that will not get out of SMUX. If you open the AVB page the option to change it from SMU X to ADAT is greyed out. Is there some way to completely wipe the firmware, and then reinstall starting from the beginning to the newest? I don't know why it's stuck in that but I can't get it to change. Okay, good to know. It might be worth toggling to 96khz or 192khz and back down to 48khz to see if that will trick it into working. You can reset to the factory default settings from the front panel of the interface. Press SELECT to enter the menu then go to Settings >Factory Defaults. Press SELECT twice to reset. This will wipe all your presets so you might want to export the ones you care about. You don't need to install firmwares in order—you should just always install the latest. You can always try manually installing the latest as well but I doubt that will make a difference. Nada…. Still has SMUX listed on both the unit and web, the SMUX is greyed out unless 96khz is selected, but once another sample rate is chosen is goes right back to being greyed out. I've reset it several times, still no luck, it will not allow me to put the B section into ADAT.
|
|
|
Post by watchtower on Apr 6, 2015 1:05:46 GMT -6
I've been living under a rock. Never heard of this interface until today. Can someone explain who this interface is geared towards? People with outboard pres, and who mix OTB, maybe on a console?
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 6, 2015 12:21:15 GMT -6
Ok, so yeah I got this figured out, although, at the hand of being hung up on and an incredibly rude guy over there. Never once has a tech rep hung up on me, wish I had the guys name but never announced it at the beginning of the call like most other places. Then I tried to call back and the call just suddenly "ended" while I was on hold. mrmiller you've been great, I like the product too, great piece of gear, but there's a lot of great pieces of gear out there by other manufacturers that carry the same chips and setup and sound just as great, some better, granted more expensive, but those fine folks never hung up on me or made me feel like I was stand beneath the Jolly Green Giant of audio guru's. I don't mind someone being straight forward, no one has to kiss my ass, just give it to me straight, talk me through my questions and ya don't even gotta say the word bye, just a no problem on the end of the call is fine for me. Might want to take a look at who's on your tech desk over there answering calls and ask who had the guy who was trying to simply register his damn product, it's quite confusing when the web ask's for you to enter serials numbers but obviously that's not how the registration is done. Dude cut the line when I asked him to walk me through it. Black Lion Audio sells gear at great prices, great gear as well, there's no sacrifice there for customer service, shouldn't be for a company trying to re-invent itself either. Sorry, but man that pulled out the wrong hair on my head.
|
|
|
Post by keymod on Apr 6, 2015 12:57:15 GMT -6
Ouch, I don't have too many left to pull out on top of my head. Glad you got it sorted, would you mind letting us know the solution?
|
|
|
Post by tonycamphd on Apr 6, 2015 13:11:13 GMT -6
I've been living under a rock. Never heard of this interface until today. Can someone explain who this interface is geared towards? People with outboard pres, and who mix OTB, maybe on a console? hey bud, check out wiz's thread, it's basically got the same guts as an Apogee symphony, the 24Ao is an awesome solution for guys who mix OTB. edit; upon further investigation, i have discovered this is indeed "wiz's thread" 8)
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 6, 2015 13:52:23 GMT -6
Ouch, I don't have too many left to pull out on top of my head. Glad you got it sorted, would you mind letting us know the solution? Well it just says SMUX, but doesn't mean that it's not accepting ADAT, for some reason I thought that the bank B would say ADAT because that's the format you'd be sending to it, but I guess it's just not setup like that. Basically you can bank A Toslink and ADAT but Bank B is the only bank that accepts both ADAT AND SMUX if that makes any sense. So, if you go into 96khz it shuts bank A down and only sends SMUX out of bank B if I understand it correctly. As for the registration and customer service, still up in the air for me at this point. And I've got plenty of hair as long as you're looking straight at me, now, if I move my head down 3 inches I'm as bald as the nationally recognized eagle of the USA.
|
|
|
Post by jeromemason on Apr 8, 2015 19:27:06 GMT -6
Man I forgot to update this.
Moto gave me a call made sure I got everything tightened up and squared away, don't know how they got my phone number, but hey, I appreciate the detective work for sure!
A note on the conversion, it's stellar. Right there with a Symphony, so indeed the engineering around those chips and opamps was done correctly, and done extremely well. What I really like is the fact the stereo image doesn't collapse at all while it's maxed, and I'm maxing the analog outs, using every one of them and it sounds just pure, no hype, no dull, just very detailed and open. The meters are nothing fancy, but at least I know at a glance if I'm too hot or soft into the converter.
I've heard the old Motu gear, this is absolutely not even in the same galaxy as the old gear, so, bravo Motu, you've managed to compete with guys that are charging 3x what you are per channel and that's no small accomplishment. I have to say as well, the whole web interface setup is top notch, the routing, all of it is straightforward and easily accessed. I'm for sure happy with mine, I'm certain it will serve me a while.
I do wish this box had an RCA Spdif I/O, that's really my only con. I honestly can't think of anything else that is an issue, for me at least.
|
|
|
Post by kcatthedog on Apr 8, 2015 19:30:57 GMT -6
nice, there are always a few , getting used to you, new gear things, happy to hear more as you get better acquainted !
|
|
|
Post by mrmiller on Apr 9, 2015 11:08:51 GMT -6
Man I forgot to update this. Moto gave me a call made sure I got everything tightened up and squared away, don't know how they got my phone number, but hey, I appreciate the detective work for sure! I was going to follow up as well but things have been busy over here! We looked into what happened as soon as you posted about the bad support experience. Rather than an intentional hangup, it seems that the call dropped. As a result, though, we've implemented a policy change. If a call drops, support will attempt to call back and pick up where things left off. I know how frustrating it can be calling into a service line only to be disconnected. I hope this change will help avoid similar frustration down the line for others!
|
|