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Multichannel Audio Interfaces - Best sounding?

Posted by Presto (A) on July 17, 2009 at 13:04:04

Hey gang:

I am going to be buying a PC audio interface soon - it's going to be 8 channels of D/A, probably Firewire or PCI (not USB). Not sure whether I need 24/192 yet, but 24/96 for sure. I have been looking at the following interfaces:

MOTU UltraLite-mk3 $550
MOTU 828mk3 $750
Motu Traveller $850
TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48 $1000
RME Multiface II (PCI or PCIe) $1150

The next step up (which may cause divorce) takes me to:
RME Fireface $1700
Lynx Aurora8 $2200

The stuff I KNOW I can't/won't afford quite yet:
Apogee Rosetta 800 or Lavry Blue. (Dare to dream).

Here is my thinking: If I figure I don't NEED 24/192 capability (this is for a tri-amped playback system) then I might be best off with the RME Multiface - for $1150 I probably won't get 8 channels with better clocks and D/A. MOTU gets me into 24/192 for a lot less money than RME, but sound quality trumps max sample rate in this app of mine. (I have very little 24/192 material to play back, and I am not even sure I will have that much to play back in the future anyways - depending on the direction of hi-res blue-ray and hi-res downloads).

So the big question is: how much better is the RME clock and D/A than the MOTU stuff? And which MOTU unit (if any) begins to compete sonically with the RME Multiface? And how big is the jump from Motu to RME compared with, say, the jump from RME to Lavry or Apogee?

Any input from you recording "audio interface" gurus would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Presto

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