On Sun, 20 May 2018 13:21:17 +0200, David Kastrup wrote: >ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net (Ralf Mardorf) writes: > >> On Tue, 2018-04-03 at 20:56 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote: >>> On Tue, 3 Apr 2018 14:34:54 -0400, Chris Chronopoulos wrote: >>> > i'm not aware of any configuration that will get you >16 channels >>> > analog for <$1k. >>> >>> How about the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20? I own one, it provides 18 >>> input and 20 output channels for less than USD 1000.00, including an >>> additional required ADAT deviceand and S/PDIF device. >>> >>> It works OTTB with Linux. >> >> Sure, the audio quality of the I/Os of this Focusrite setup can't >> hold a candle to the audio quality of my RME gear, which provides >> less I/Os by a completely different price range. However, do you >> think you could build professional audio quality circuits at home, >> by less costs, than a vendor such as RME could build, by a larger >> scale production, than you do at home? > >If you got 1€ of satisfaction out of every mention of your Hammerfall >DSP, you probably got back its price threefold. If not its weight in >gold. > >RME does not develop their own audio ADCs, they use similar converters >as everybody else. Their analog circuitry around it is good and >durable, and they are pretty good with continued driver support and >also delivered good info in more active ALSA development times. > >In the mean time, converter development has moved on. The audio >quality of quite a few setups can definitely hold a candle to that of >older RME gear by now. And for now. In 10 years, gear might have >died of hardware failure and/or bit rot while the RME keeps running as >long as you can connect it to your computer, assuming you replaced the >Asian power brick which has likely given up its ghost long ago but can >be replaced by a wagonload of different choices. > >There have been listening tests for different ADC converters ranging >from very affordable to very expensive. It's already rather hard to >distinguish boutique preamps from run-of-the-mill preamps, and it's >much harder to actually tell apart different converters in double-blind >listening tests. > >It's really more the reliability and robustness and product value >preservation that sets apart products like those from RME. The actual >conversion quality, due to relying on the same kind of parts, is not as >much an issue these days. Instead of your blah-blah I would welcome a recommendation for an audio device cheaper than RME gear, providing such a high quality headphone output or at least such good line outputs, that I could use it with a high quality external headphone amp. Tell me all about it! -- pacman -Q linux{,-rt{-cornflower,,-pussytoes,-securityink}}|cut -d\ -f2 4.16.9-1 4.16.8_rt3-1 4.16.7_rt1-1 4.14.34_rt27-1 4.14.29_rt25-1 _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user