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[perceval]

I've had a 1818vsl for a while now.  It was first purchased to record a band, and later on, was moved to my living room doing multichannel duty with JRiver.1818vsl is thin sounding
The sound was ok, but there was always something bugging me.

Last month, I got a nice hifi NuPrime USB DAC and plugged it in.  Oh!  Bold sound.

A/B comparison between the Presonus and NuPrime DAC revealed the 1818vsl is thin sounding, with a lot of sibilance ... almost scratchy.
The NuPrime was full sound, and no sibilance at all.

But, the NuPrime is 2-channel only.  I like to go active in my XOs, so I need a multichannel DAC. (need 4 channels for the mains, the rest for HT)

I've been reading reviews of the Steinberg UR824, the Focusrite 18i20, etc... but going to sites like sweetwater.com, all reviews mention how nice the DACs are on each model... including the Presonus one! 

Should I expect the same quality on the Steinberg and the Focusrite as I get from the Presonus?  If so, I'm not willing to go there.

Unfortunately, units like the Exasound e28 are just too pricey for me.

[Roky]

I tried the Focusrite 18i20, but handed it back.

First, the sound was not much better than my rather cheap Behringer FCA610 (ie the difference was subtle). Second, it had a rather annoying background hiss, which came out through the speakers. I think most sundcards produces some hiss, the FCA610 also, but the amount of hiss the Focusrite produced, was WAY higher.

Recently I bought an Esi Gigaport HD+. It does produce a little bit of hiss when gain are set to max, otherwise it does not bother me at all (Im very picky about that). It is at least a couple of steps better than FCA610 in sound quality. It does not sound harsh at all IMO.

The Gigaport HD+ supports only 6 channel 24 bit at 48 khz, - if you want to use all 8 channels, it will degrade to 16 bit. I havent tried using it with all 8 channels, so I do not know how it sound in that mode.
It has been on the market for quite some years, but it is, no contest, better than the two other soundcards I have tried. Also, the drivers are ROCK stable!!!

Even though it runs on only USB bus power, it has quite some output gain (which were one of my main concerns). It may not be enough in every system, but I find it perfectly fine for now. 

[mattkhan]

how many channels do you need?

[perceval]

Roky,
yes, that's what I found reading a bunch of other threads... the 18i20 is a good introduction model but not really there when it comes to good quality clean sound.
The ESI Gigaport HD+ is not available here, it would have to be sent from Amazon, if they're willing.  The only ESI model I found here is the U46XL.


Mattkhan,
6 channels might be enough, 8 channels would be great as I plan to use fullrange speakers with a sub underneath each, plus the other units to make it to a 5.1 configuration.

[mattkhan]

http://motu.com/products/avb/8a has just been released, this should be a good option

[perceval]

http://motu.com/products/avb/8a has just been released, this should be a good option

That looks really good.
I looked around, and since it should be the smaller version of the 16a, there was one thing that bothered me in the reviews of the 16a... it seems to take 15 to 20 seconds when it changes bitrate.  That might be ok for a sound studio that will set it at one bitrate throughout the session, but I have many songs that are not at the same bitrate, so, waiting 15-20 sec between songs seems a bit wrong.

It's too early to tell.  I'll wait for a couple of reviews before deciding.  I got caught in marketing plots before with my Presonus, which never worked as advertised on the VSL part, and now is completely dropped from support on all the functions it was supposed to have.

Thanks for the heads up though!

[mattkhan]

I have a motu 1248, it takes about 3-5s to change sample rate

[perceval]

Ok, thanks...

does it make a pop when it changes?  My Presonus would pop loudly when switching.

[mattkhan]

There is an audible, relatively low frequency, noise. It is not a loud noise nor would I call it a pop but there is a noise.

[krzys]

They way to avoid the delay with Motu 1248 is to resample the music files to the same bit rate in the player ex 96 k. In the same time you can only use one set of filters/crossovers with the same bit rate.
Chris

[Trumpetguy]

Lynx Aurora8 or 16 is a very good alternative, but it'll also click on sample rate change. Real time resampling to eg 96kHz is a good solution (works for me).

[jrobbins]

Maybe you should consider the MiniDSP u-DAC8. https://www.minidsp.com/products/usb-audio-interface/u-dac8  It is a multichannel DAC for $275.  Stereophile B class.  I run it at 24/192 on an i7 fanless server and have no problem listening to multichannel SACD ISOs off my NAS decoded by SOX within JRiver MC22.  Particularly when paired with an Audioquest Jitterbug ($49 from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Audioquest-Jitterbug-AudioQuest-USB-Filter/dp/B00YTA78FW), an iFi Audio 5V iPower power supply ($49 from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01GNNXP0Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8) and an Uptone Audio USB Regen ($175 direct from Uptone Audio http://uptoneaudio.com/products/usb-regen), you will have a very nice multichannel DAC going! JCR

[perceval]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The Lynx units are seated in a completely other price bracket. I'm sure they are very nice, though.

I had a look at the U-DAC8, but was afraid it might be a cheap implementation of the DAC chip, so I wasn't sure about sound quality.  I have a nice DAC now, but it's only 2 channels.

Would like to implement active filters, hence the need for multichannel DAC, retain the sound quality I have from the nice DAC, and not spend too much money...

Is that asking too much?    ha ha!

[Roky]

perceval,

If you plan to make digital crossover, you should consider a soundcard which has an inbuilt mic amp with phantom power. Otherwise you would need a separate soundcard. You kind of must use MIC when making crossovers.

I would like to have a sound card which does both, but is does not come cheap.

Regards.

I have also considered the multichannel usb DAC from miniDSP, but Im not sure if it is as good as my Esi-soundcard.

[pschelbert]

Hi

I use a RME UFX. It switches rather quickly bit-rates. You hear a slight click though. Its a 12xADC and 12xDAC plus digital channels. Has some price, at sweetwater around 1800USD. Superb quality, driver, sound, technical specs, stability...

If you want to know more I can measure the time it takes. What rate to what you want to know?

Before I had a motu823mk3hybrid. It worked well but it hanged up MC, The computer and itself if you tried on the fly a samplerate change. I tried about a half year to sort it out, with the motu support etc. No chance. So I sold it almost new...

I have the same as you a lot of different samplerates (44.1,48, 88.2, 96, 172, 196k)

Peter

[pschelbert]

A/B comparison between the Presonus and NuPrime DAC revealed the 1818vsl is thin sounding, with a lot of sibilance ... almost scratchy.
The NuPrime was full sound, and no sibilance at all.

But, the NuPrime is 2-channel only.  I like to go active in my XOs, so I need a multichannel DAC. (need 4 channels for the mains, the rest for HT)
Unfortunately, units like the Exasound e28 are just too pricey for me.

Hi

yes the presonus is very cheap, no wonder it does not match superb performance. The proposed RME UFX is around 1800USD, the presonus 400USD, 4x higher in price.
The performance of an RME UFX ist top notch, comparable to Lynx, for a lower price though. Its better in any aspect then motu823mk3hybrid (around USD750). It looks as you get what you pay for...

However its a bargain compared to exasound e28.

Peter