d-a-m-o Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Hey guys, I am saving some money since a few months in order to buy a 8 in preamp to expand my Motu ultralite AVB (since I use a lot of outboard gear). I was aiming at two models : Audient ASP 800 or Arturia Audiofuse 8pre both costing 699 €, so not cheap. I'm not Behringer biggest fan but for less than 200 € the ADA8200 is quite tempting, any advice on this one ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 I was considering getting one of these as an expander but I ended up getting a secondhand M Audio Profire 2626 and running it in ADAT standalone mode instead. It was about the same price (200 USD, although I've heard the prices aren't as good in the EU). It's a bit on the old side but I'm happy with the way the converters sound with an external clock. I've never used the mic preamps but the feature that made me choose it in te first place is that it's one of the only decent, affordable ADAT expanders that don't pass line level signals through the preampas at all. If you're mainly dealing with line level stuff that's somethign to consider, because it makes preamp quality kind of irrelevant. I have used the DI inputs a few times and they're fine but nothing special, so I suspect the preamps would be similar. As a lne level expander, though, I'm totally satisfied with it for the price. One to consider. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/m-audio-profire-2626 One potential issue depending on your system is that you have to connect it to your computer as an interface to get it configured, and it's Firewire 400 so you'd need some kind of compatible port if you ever wanted to change any of its settings, even if you always used it as a standalone ADAT expander like I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbage_burner Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 I have two that both have the black lion audio mods on them. They sound great for the money and it’s a cheap way to add I/o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 1 minute ago, bandenoire said: I have two that both have the black lion audio mods on them. They sound great for the money and it’s a cheap way to add I/o ADA8200's or Profire 2626's? I'm curious about the BLA mod for the 2626. My main interface is a BLA modded 002 and I'm really happy with it, but I don't know if the 2626 would be worth doing since I don't use the preamps and it's already getting clock from the modded 002 so most of what BLA would be changing in it seems irrelevant to my setup right now anyway, but I'd love to hear about it from someone who had gotten the mod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbage_burner Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 55 minutes ago, TubularCorporation said: ADA8200's or Profire 2626's? I'm curious about the BLA mod for the 2626. My main interface is a BLA modded 002 and I'm really happy with it, but I don't know if the 2626 would be worth doing since I don't use the preamps and it's already getting clock from the modded 002 so most of what BLA would be changing in it seems irrelevant to my setup right now anyway, but I'd love to hear about it from someone who had gotten the mod. I got the mods for the ADA8200s. They're early models so I was only able to get the op amp and caps swapped. Made a night and day difference though. I started using them exclusively versus the aurora lynx's they were attached to as they sounded good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-a-m-o Posted February 17, 2020 Author Share Posted February 17, 2020 My main concern is the quality of fabrication, heard stories about faulty line inputs and stuff like that, sound quality should be ok for what I do. Still need to think about it, the arturia looks really dope but at almost 700€ ouch... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thawkins Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 I have also thought about getting an ADAT supporting preamp/DI box but then each time I basically go "do not want behringer, others too expensive" and stop. This cycle repeats itself every 2 months. These BLA mods are basically the original price + $255 or can you order from them and receive the complete package for the listed price? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-a-m-o Posted February 17, 2020 Author Share Posted February 17, 2020 9 hours ago, thawkins said: I have also thought about getting an ADAT supporting preamp/DI box but then each time I basically go "do not want behringer, others too expensive" and stop. This cycle repeats itself every 2 months. These BLA mods are basically the original price + $255 or can you order from them and receive the complete package for the listed price? yes, really not sure about buying behringer gear, mainly because of the hardware quality (and from what I've seen on gearslutz some peoples are not crazy about the sound quality) so, wait and see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Again, used Profire 2626 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakapo Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Another option that I think of as an upmarket Behringer ADA and is line only is the Ferrofish Pulse 16, but you would need at least 2 adat i/o ports spare for the full 16 in/out and 4 adat for full 96khz, so not really an option in this case. However this teamed with something like an RME digiface USB gives you 16 in/out for a grand, and I can't think of anything that comes close to that value/quality combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thawkins Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 10 hours ago, TubularCorporation said: Again, used Profire 2626 Hmm there's one for sale quite close and quite cheap. Might actually end up getting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 On 2/17/2020 at 7:12 PM, kakapo said: Another option that I think of as an upmarket Behringer ADA and is line only is the Ferrofish Pulse 16, but you would need at least 2 adat i/o ports spare for the full 16 in/out and 4 adat for full 96khz, so not really an option in this case. However this teamed with something like an RME digiface USB gives you 16 in/out for a grand, and I can't think of anything that comes close to that value/quality combo. A Digi002 with the BL Signature mod is like $500 used these days and they sound fantastic, that's been my main interface for like 9 years. There are definitely some things that I don't love about it but it sounds so good I'm willing to put up with no standalone mode and aging drivers and no zero-latency monitoring and the risk of burning out the Firewire chip if you accidentally hotplug it and not being able to switch between -10dBu and +4 dBV (or turn phantom power on and off, for that matter) without digging around in the back for a tiny toggle switch. As long as you make sure to get one that was made after they solved the power harness flaw the early ones had it's a really good deal still, IMO. That Ferrofish does look nice, but $1500 plus the cost of an ADAT host of some kind to hook it to is a lot of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakapo Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 5 hours ago, TubularCorporation said: That Ferrofish does look nice, but $1500 plus the cost of an ADAT host of some kind to hook it to is a lot of money. You should be able to get it a lot cheaper than that in the states, its about £770 incl. vat here in the UK. Thats for the basic 16 i/o model, they have different options which bump up the price considerably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 The cheapest I've seen is $1250 or so for the most basic model with the step up being $1500-$2000. I didn't look that hard, though, and I'm sure a secondhand one would be less (the cheapest one on eBay US is $1000 but it isn't used). Another $300-$500 for an RME Digiface. Not something in my price range any time soon, but definitely one to watch. As far as 24/48 vs higher sample rates, I actually switched down from 24/96 to 24/48 when I added the Profire to my system and everything I've done has sounded better since then to my ear, make of that what you will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thawkins Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Pulled the trigger today. Excited to have a M-Audio thing again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
714681746476436 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 I ran a few of these in my old studio. They sounded transparent to me and never cussed me any issue. My advice to to keep them at line level though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thawkins Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 I got the M-Audio, even nicely hooked it up to my other gear and now I am missing another optical cable to be able to sync it properly to my other interface without the damn crackles. I hope I can find one around here before the corona plague quarantine hits... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 I have mine hooked up with a pair of these: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2764 I can't think of any dumb joke so I'm just going to leave this: https://www.thecableco.com/optimism-lotus-st-optical-cable.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubularCorporation Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 It's all moot unless you upload your stuff to Soundcloud through a Chord Company ChordMusic Streaming Cable audiophile ethernet cable, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thawkins Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 I actually managed to get the cable OK so now I have everything set up perfectly... as long as I figure out some other reason why things aren't perfect. I'll give it 2-3 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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