Tascam US 1641 for very cheap

[LeSedna]

Hello,

I'm sort of trying to find a remplacement for my toneport UX2, because I'm starting to think it's time to get better AD/DA and time to get (decent) preamps. Also, why not increase the number of in/out.

I'm of course interested by some RME but it's a bit expensive for the moment.

I've come to discover the tascam US 1641, a quite cheap 16in/out (down to 8/4 if you only count basic xlr/jack i/o) usb card in 1U format.

I found it for 180 euros. The toneport can be sold for around 100 to 120 euros quite easily, so this will only be a little investment in the end. It's so cheap because the seller says it has problems on the monitor outputs. I've read that the outs are not all available in the DAW because monitour outs are only hardware out and cannot be assigned. So this mean to monitor I'll have to use 2 outputs manually routed in the DAW.

I'm asking you if you know this card and if this is interesting. It seems it's a good card, that doesn't enhance the sound, but it records what goes in, correctly, with no extra or loss of quality (normal for the price) but yet better than any line6. No added crap to the signal.

Also, i'm starting to ask to myself if there could be alternatives, let's say less inputs (I can live with only 2 or 4 XLR/jack in/outs) but better quality. I'm up to any proposition of decent USB card you could make.

Well too long post so I'm stopping now

EDIT : info, here it costs 400 euros brand new.

 

[MetalJonesy]

thats a very cheap price as in the uk they go for around £360 ish i think!!!

 

[Metaltastic]

Meh, all that i/o and bells and whistles for $400 US, I'm not so sure - seems like quantity over quality of features! Check out this thread Mat

 

[LeSedna]

thank you Marcus, this thread is really interesting. Anyway it made me stick to my goal, which is to wait untill the rme fireface 400. But I already feel a bit limited by my toneport UX2.

First the XLR inputs seems to add too much noise for me. If you're not recording really close a loud enough sound, you'll hear some noise when you'll level the volume of the recorded track. Also, when I reach 30-40 tracks processed (in Reaper, as an average project with kontakt2/SSD running too), it's starting to have troubles, popping and glichting. Also, it has 2 XLR and 2 line inputs, but you have to select which combination of 2 you want. I wasnt able to record them all at the same time. Plus, no preamp nor good convertos. It's cheap and for this price I think it's a must-have, really practical etc, but it's not my range of quality anymore.

And until the fireface that I hope I'll be able to afford in some months I'm asking myself if this particular case would be interesting. It's not a wonderful car but it would be only 60 euros more after selling the UX2, it has preamps even if not best ones, and it has at least 4 inputs/2 outputs/monitor/headphones (my minimum).

Also, even if the price is suspicious, I have dealt with tascam before, it was decent (US 122L), very stable (really better than my line6 UX2 but the line6 fits more my current needs).

What do you think ?

 

[Metaltastic]

Well when you get to the 30-40 track counts, I assume you're in the editing/mixing stages, and not recording any more, so you really should increase the latency and that'll help the pops/clicks/etc. But as for the Tascam, I dunno, it still seems like overkill to me, I'd think the Focusrite Saffire (the white one) would be a better bet in terms of overall quality of pres/converters! (and it has 4 total inputs, and more importantly is firewire )