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No, but I can say I really like my Echo AudioFire. I have no basis for convertor comparison, but I have compared the preamps to some others and can say they are very, very good and transparent. And despite my ineptitude at digital recording, the interface itself has been flawless in its performance. I especially like the way a mic'd guitar amp is captured.

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To my ears, the preamps on the 896HD sound a little more "musical" than the ones on the Fireface800, and there's more of them too.

 

A few things set the RME interface on a higher rung, though. More inputs all together, lower latency settings, slightly better converters according to specs (I have heard both but not side by side. The RME did sound very good though).

 

They're really two different monsters though. The 8 preamps right out of the box on the 896HD, as well as the front panel metering, can be very useful to a lot of people. The higher amount of digital inputs and crazy routing options with the Fireface800 might make it a better companion for someone using a digital mixer as a front end, though.

 

Since I believe they sound relatively similar, I'd say to just do some research, figure out which one has more of the features you're looking for, and go with that one.

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The problem with the 896HD is there are preamps on every channel. MOTU claims that setting the preamp levels to zero takes them out of the signal path but I can tell you from experience that's BS.

 

Anyway, MOTU's stuff is usually great but the Fireface is still a step up from any of them. A Lynx card with external pre's would be the next step up from there.

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Originally posted by Eric Dahlberg

The problem with the 896HD is there are preamps on every channel. MOTU claims that setting the preamp levels to zero takes them out of the signal path but I can tell you from experience that's BS.

 

 

Eric,

 

Are you absolutely positive about the preamp always being inline on the 896HD?

 

There is a switch for every input that can use both the preamp and the trim button (MIC), the trim button only (LINE) or bypass both (FIXED, +4dBu). I thought that using the FIXED setting would be transparent and would allow taking advantage of an external pre: if this is a wrong assumption, could you please correct me and explain further?

 

Thanks,

Rhino

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Originally posted by Rhino Madness

Are you absolutely positive about the preamp always being inline on the 896HD?

 

 

The coloration could be coming from somewhere else, I just know that the sound quality of an external preamp run through the 896HD's pre's is degraded substantially. Running the same external preamps into the HD192's inputs doesn't have that problem.

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huh? both the 896HD and the Traveler have one set of ADAT I/O, which is 8 channels at 48k and 4 channels at 96k. no interface can have a different ratio of channels/samplerate when it comes to an optical cable.

 

the RME has two sets of ADAT I/O, one which doubles as spdif. the traveler and 896HD have one.

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Thank you all for your input. I currently have a Motu 896 (NOT HD), and I think it might be best to get something different than the 896HD, unless the preamps on the 896HD are REALLY different from the 896.

 

Having said that, how would I best connect the Fireface800 AND the 896 to the same TI Powerbook (only one firewire port), using DP. Could I piggyback the two somehow, or would I have to find a different solution?

 

I agree that it would probably be best to get better converters than either one, but if I do that, I won't be able to get the mics I need.

 

Thanks.

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