Motu 828 MK3

Hey lolo,

These are good interfaces. Don't get fooled by the low price. Of course motu had to cut somewhere......they did cut in the internal clock. Use another clock and you will see that the converters aren't that bad. I use these on mobile work with external converters and when i need more i do use motu conversion. Clients are always happy and so am i.

Never go for the 828MKII because these have really bad firewire implemantation. All my 3 828MKII had the same firewire problem after 5 years of usage. Even the 1 interface that stayed at the studio.

But the 828MKIII.......go for it man.

Motu's clock aren't that bad. But clocking it with an apogee or even a bla makes it better.

Probably similar. It's PCIe...so, Windows is it going forward. It's scalable...it was part of a great "buy whatever IO you need" design....10-15 years ago.

It was on my short list for "if it came up used/cheap"...the RME came up first. but, buying new, I'd get the Thunderbolt/USB combo. It'll "last longest"--meaning for more years of new computers--one of those two will work for many years To come.

after having a motu traveler for 5-6 years and then upgrading to a symphony i/o, it's disgusting how bad the traveler sounded. You get what you pay for, regardless of what anyone says. Save up another $1000, get something else that has better analog I/O.

at all sample rates, compared to the symphony. This is with listening back, not dealing with recording. the D->A difference between the two is like looking thru a dirty window vs. being outside.

Also, he didn't HAVE an 828. I know someone who's NOT at ALL picky about recording gear who returned a Traveler because he said "that sound was awful". I've never touched a Traveler...but, I have used an 828 before....and mixed many an 828 track others cut. I wouldn't call it anywhere near "disgusting". Except the preamps--I never actually plugged into them, but I HAVE used some MOTU preamps before, though I don't remember the unit, and well--when I had an 828 here briefly I never even found out if those front panel inputs WORKED previous experience had been so bad.

....but, unlike too many others, they are a full 8x8 analog LINE inputs on the back. Maybe even 8x10 does that one have dedicated monitor outs? Or was that the 2408?

I do hear you on DACs for digital mixing, though, MKM. I honestly never really used it for that. SPDIF or AES to the Benchmark for years. It never occurs to me to plug in anything else. Which isn't fair to some degree, I suppose to say the converters are fine without mentioning that I'm listening to their AD work on better converters when I'm making said judgement.

Lolo, that's exactly what I'm doing with my UFX. Burl B2 in to UFX AES/EBU. UFX AES/EBU out to Dangerous Source. Don't use the UFX DAC's, ADC's, or pre's except when absolutely necessary. I wish the UFX had an additional digital out, though, so I could have another high-end DAC to analog to another high-end ADC for buss processing, while I'm still monitoring through the Source.

I either need to add something like the RME ADI-192 DD for additional digital i/o, or the "cheapie" solution would be to trade the UFX for something like a HILO. With the HILO I can continue to use the Burl and the Source, and have three more useable DAC's and an ADC. I'm just not sure about the Lynx Windows drivers compared to the rock-solid RME drivers.

Sorry, just mulling over my options out loud. My experience with MOTU equipment, I think it was a midi timepiece in the bad-old days when I used to use Macs, was so negative that I would never consider using anything from them again under any circumstances. That's just me, I know most others have not had similar experiences.

^^^ not sure what happened with that first part

Last time i checked for 24 input and 24 outputs (8 analog / 16 aes) from a symphony........it was closer to 6000$.

But who am i to argue?

The guy is asking for a motu interface and all you have to say is it sound like crap. Are you a full time DJ hanging on the purple site?

lol i am not.  I see you're new here. 


The guy should invest in RME or similar.  that motu stuff doesn't sound as good as other gear in that pricepoint.   

Popmann, all cards come with 16 channels of i/o.  it's either 8 analog in/out and 8 digital in/out via either AES or ADAT, or it's 16 analog in/16 digital out, or 16 analog out/16 digital in, or 16 analog in/16 analog out.  Either way, it's still 16 channels of i/o per card.   I built 2 3' dSub->TRS cables for $60 for all the parts.  took like 3 hours per cable tho lol...  If you don't go over 16 channels, you can run it over USB just fine.  it's mac only, tho..