New Interface Decision

[coldthrn]

Hey guys just thought I would get your chime in ..
Currently I have been using a MOTU 896HD / G5 / Cubase and its time for a change.

I have been looking at the Mackie 1200F and the Apogee Ensemble. I know Im going to get the, "Get the RME800" but would rather weigh these two options for now.

I want to ADAT my 896HD to the new unit for the extra pres, I know the Mackie can handle its 12 inputs plus the 8 of the 896HD for a total of 20 inputs however, the Ensemble says it will only accept 8 channels of ADAT and only has 8 channels of AD/DA conversion this could be a potential problem if I want to record more than 8 channels at a time. However Im thinking the conversion, clock and pres on the Ensemble will shit all over the 1200F.

There is ALOT of good words about the sound of the Apogee Ensemble and hardly any words at all for the Mackie 1200F.

Your thoughts?

 

[006]

1200F. Dew it.

~006

 

[Zombietakeover]

Yeah as soon as i get my tax money back ....I think i'm going to go with the 400F

 

[Temps]

I've been reading up on the Steinberg MR816 CSX... apparently its pres are even better than the Onyx ones, and the converters are supposed to be awesome.. better than the Ensemble. I even found a guy on Gearslutz of all places who was debating ditching his Lavoy stuff and just going with the MR816's built in converters.

 

[Metaltastic]

Hmm, I find that hard to believe - correct me if I'm wrong, but the only difference between the 816 X and CSX is the onboard DSP, right? Which means the X can be had for $1k, and it has 8 XLR inputs and ADAT i/o, whereas the Onyx 400 is $780, has only 4 preamps, and no ADAT. Since Mackie excels at bang for the buck, $780 seems a really competitive price, and so it seems unlikely that $220 more for the Steinberg gets you not only 4 more preamps, ADAT, and the DSP processing but also better pres and better converters than an Apogee.

 

[AdamWathan]

My Onyx 1200F fucking rules.

 

[Zombietakeover]

Yeah i guess the CS stand for some channel strip thing that comes on every channel and then the X stand for the Reverb that comes with the interface ...

 

[Temps]

Hmm, I find that hard to believe - correct me if I'm wrong, but the only difference between the 816 X and CSX is the onboard DSP, right? Which means the X can be had for $1k, and it has 8 XLR inputs and ADAT i/o, whereas the Onyx 400 is $780, has only 4 preamps, and no ADAT. Since Mackie excels at bang for the buck, $780 seems a really competitive price, and so it seems unlikely that $220 more for the Steinberg gets you not only 4 more preamps, ADAT, and the DSP processing but also better pres and better converters than an Apogee.

Brand new product though. With such a critical piece of gear you'd need to offer some incredible features for the price to get customers away from the more established companies.

 

[Zombietakeover]

Does anyone have a Steinberg MR816 CSX on this board ? that anyone knows of

 

[coldthrn]

I'm leery of it based on the video demo. Why is it that all demo videos it seems are really cheesy and awful. I remember when the Digi001 first came out the video for that one was hideous. The presenter always seems like a complete tool.

 

[Melodeath]

I just read a review the other night of the Mackie 800r (since I'm considering it for the future), which has the onyx pres. The reviewer said the onyx pres sound exactly the same as the preamps in the RME fireface stuff (the quadmic pre or whatever). The reviewer also compared the EQ curve of the RME to the Onyx to verify what he was hearing, and the EQ curve was the same.

Furthermore, neither I, nor 006 was able to hear a difference between an Onyx pre and the pres in the Alesis io26 interface in a shootout done in a review.

I'm only saying this to point out that I recently found out the Onyx pres are not necessarily the best pres in the sub-$1k range, despite how well-praised the Onyx pres are on the internet. I'm starting to realize that the internet is often just a cesspool of people spreading rumors about gear quality--opinions often based simply on brand/name and random rumors read on other forums. People will give advice on which piece of gear to get, backing up their opinion with "evidence," without even having used the gear. I'm starting to believe that the difference between pres is extremely miniscule if existent at all in the sub-$1k range.

I'm reluctant to spend $1k on 8 RME-quality pres (the Mackie 800r). Not to say RME is poor quality. I'd just rather build a couple API clones or something for the same price.

/end cynical rant due to recent research on pres

 

[Rob Logic]

I have an 800r and the pres are good. Maybe not great but i haven't been unhappy with what I captured with them as of yet. They were a definite upgrade from the digi002 pres I was using at the time. I think what melodeath was getting at partially is in or around that price range, there isn't going to be a whole lot of discernible difference between one interface to the next. I recently weighed the fireface, ensemble, and metric halo units and decided to go with the uln2 from metric halo. Since I already had the 800r I wasn't looking for pre count, just a good upgrade in convertors which is definitely what I got.