Home General Asylum

General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

Old DACs can be good



In the studio crowd, the long out-of-production UAD 2192 converters command prices well above their last retail price. The reason? They still sound better than many current converters, including some current UAD boxes.

And the little company Metric Halo that invented the audio interface (i.e. DAC/ADC plus line- or mic-level inputs) put out user-installable upgrades to their new architecture. The converter chips don't change, but with the switch from Firewire to USB their capacity has increased by orders of magnitude. All their interfaces how have internal routers for 4,092 x 4,092 channels across an unlimited number of daisy-chained interfaces. The cost of chaining multiple interfaces via TCP/IP is one sample per linked box. So my ten-year-old ULN2 gets a new lease on life, and sounds better than ever. Every piece of hardware they've ever made can be upgraded. They include extremely powerful DAW software that can run either stand-alone or as inserts in Pro Tools/Logic/etc. The new architecture also supports plug-in cards to support every I/O standard out there, like AES, MIDI, SPDIF, ADAT, MADI, etc. The pic shows a stack of their 8-channel model with all the various I/O options (right side of the rear.)

They also did something else unusual. They put out a Beta version of their software for the upgraded boxes, and set up a thread on the Gearslutz computers forum to communicate with customers who tried it. That thread now has over 3,000 entries and has been an outstanding guide to the new software that included extensive customer input as they tweaked the new software and included customer requests. Many studios have been running the beta version in their daily production, as it's been extremely stable. They are also the one of two audio companies where it's easy to get hold of a principal to help with any problems. (The other is Manley.) Very cool.

WW
"Put on your high heeled sneakers. Baby, we''re goin'' out tonight.



Edits: 03/20/21

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Schiit Audio  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
  • Old DACs can be good - Bill Way 11:37:31 03/20/21 (0)

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.