| let me tell you that the Duet knocks the firebox out of the park! You don't even need to really look into high end pres for awhile. I used a firebox for a couple of years. Upgraded to a Duet and never looked back.
As most will tell you, conversion makes the smallest impact on your audio, but its always nice to know that your conversion is great when you want make high quality recordings.
If you are thinking of going the lunchbox route, you will have the ability to have a good variety of gear, but keep in mind that the Duet is a one way ticket. Meaning that you can't really use it in a send/return configuration. So if you fall in love with a 500 series compressor (and you will), you can only use it for tracking. Something like an Audiofire 12 would give you more flexibility for outboard processing. 12 ins/outs and no pres.
In closing, if you are only doing one channel at a time, the Duet should do it for you. Pres are clean, neutral, and have plenty o gain. If you want to add some spice, then get a different pre to use with the duet. For one channel at a time, you really don't need a lunchbox. My 2 cents.
Ryan
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The Big Rybowski |