ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net (Ralf Mardorf) writes: > On Sun, 20 May 2018 13:21:17 +0200, David Kastrup wrote: > >>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! I use a Mackie Onyx 1620 mixer with Firewire card. It's 18 channels out (the 16 input channels of the channel strips as well as the main mix) and two channels out (basically routed to the control room section). The mixer has DB25 Tascam-kind symmetric recording outs: on a Mackie Onyx 1220 without Firewire card, I used those to connect into an RME DSP Hammerfall. Either way you are using the Onyx preamps. There is no quality difference warranting use of the DSP Hammerfall. The main advantage is that routing of the outputs is much more flexible: you can use them for the equivalent of plugins. The Mackie Onyx 1640i mixer has 16 channels back into the mixer: if you need that kind of routing, that would likely be the only choice within that family. Those are basically studio/live components. I've used them to good success even though for most purposes the mixers are overkill and take up too much space. I haven't been overly convinced with Mackie's consumer audio options (like the Onyx 400F or the Onyx Satellite). I've used the Satellite (2 inputs, 2 outputs) as a compact option on demos but you should not mix high impedance inputs (guitar) with phantom powered mics, and your mics should be fine with getting something like 38V. I've bricked an Onyx 400F and that seems to the general way in which those devices end up eventually, judging from net stories. Driver support of Mackie is lacklustre: most of those devices aren't supported with current versions of Windows and/or MacOSX anymore which is why you can get them pretty cheap. The analog part of their studio equipment is solid and I rather like that they are putting their schematics online. They are (or at least have been) OEMing their digital parts and that's a mixed bag, to say the least, with time-limited support. But the headphone amps are fine. I've been using the Satellite as a purely analog headphone amp (fed via balanced return lines in the recording room stagebox wired to some AUX outputs of the Mackie Mixer) and I've used it when wanting a better soundcard/headphone output (low impedance, high gain) than what my laptop has built-in. The correlation between brand name and quality particularly regarding the digital components is not the same as with RME: I'll readily grant you that. But when you manage to go for their strong points, you are not worse off. -- David Kastrup _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
