My Slutty Delima! (help)

[Charlie-O]

I currently own a protools hd3 rig with a digi 192 i/o
I also own a rosetta 800 96k,

Witch of these units sound better?


If the rosseta is not a spuer diffrence Im going to sell it, and fullfill my slutty lust with other gear.

[jaye b]

is it me or..
give them a listen and find out wich one sounds better to you..

[Charlie-O]

Thats probably the best way, but on the other hand I was hoping that I could tap into the knowledge and experience of the great people at this forum (Jaye B excluded) and get their opinions as well.


So golden ears tap on in please.......

[PT User]

Originally Posted by Charlie-O

Thats probably the best way, but on the other hand I was hoping that I could tap into the knowledge and experience of the great people at this forum (Jaye B excluded) and get their opinions as well.


So golden ears tap on in please.......

Not sure your going to get too many responses that differ from JAYE B's. Just a wild guess though

[syra]

Originally Posted by Charlie-O

I currently own a protools hd3 rig with a digi 192 i/o
I also own a rosetta 800 96k,

Witch of these units sound better?


If the rosseta is not a spuer diffrence Im going to sell it, and fullfill my slutty lust with other gear.

If you got a pair of ears why would you ask this question?

What if 10 strangers said the rosetta sounds better...yet you can't hear the difference...would you keep it?

[Improv]

So if you A/B'ed them yourself and decided you liked one better, but then read a differing opinion from a "trusted gearslut," would you then change your mind?

As an engineer ya gotta trust your ears first.

[midnightsun]

Doing a good, scientific A/B can be difficult. I will presume that that may be part of your question since beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Converters are like preamps or mics-- Which is better Manley, Pendulum, Neve, TASCAM?

With your setup is it possible to split a line level signal from your preamp and send one to each converter simultaneously? You must compare apples to apples. It is near impossible to simply use one set of converters and switch them out and use another set and say for sure that one is better.

There is a lot of "THE EMERPOR'S NEW CLOTHES" logic going around about how to push toward the Holy Grail of tone.

Once you have idential tracks recorded for each converter have your wife or buddy feed the tracks to you at various volumes in different sequences. You have to blindly pick your favorite. If you can't record simultaneously mic your stereo speaker with one of your CD recordings, keep all the adjustments the same and swop converters.

If there is clearly a difference then you have your answer. If you can't hear a difference (which is probably going to be the case) it doesn't mean that there is no difference. It only means that it is hard to hear the difference. A good converter stands out better when you have recorded multiple tracks. It is a lot of work to a/b multiple track recordings comparing apples to apples.

My own philosophy is to only purchase digital gear that I intend to use til it dies. Digital equipment depreciates faster than a Lincoln Navigator SUV. When the gear is totally obsolete I will sell it instead of using it for a paper weight. On the other hand if you can not tell the difference sell the Rosetta and get what you can. It will be worth more today than tomorrow.

Good luck

[nbutter]

this is a partial answer, because i haven't heard the apogee.

but i can tell you that the 192 sounds GREAT (imho) - I have one. WAY better than my old digi001 and Mbox, and better than my Metric Halo 2882, as far as i can hear (they are in separate rooms so i haven't A/B'd them fairly...).

and for hiphop, which i think is what you do (i looked at some other posts), i don't think the apogee is going to make a big difference, even if it sounds "better" to some people -- I think better is going to get very subjective at or above the 192 level.

i mean, if you're doing string quartets, maybe you'd hear a difference. but for an MPC and a Triton? no freaking way.

my advice is sell the apogee and put the $$$ somewhere else - like room treatments!! tame the wild lowend!

good luck

[suicide shift]

I had both too. I did not use the 192 for A/D D/A conversion because I liked the Rosetta better. But that is just my opinion. If it were me, I would not sell the Rosetta unless you were going to replace it with comperable or better convertors. Also, with the Rosetta you can use it for master clock and slave the 192 to it, if you think Apogee's clock is better, which, it is, again, in my opinion.

The ultimate test would be monitoring a set of mults from an analog source where you could compare the source to both sets of converters

I currently have a rosetta 800 96, but if I had the 192 instead, it would offer much more flexibility. (I could use the 16 outs to my folcrom. ) I'm debating selling my rosetta and using the funds for a 192.


(OR if anyone would want to trade a 192 for a 2nd rosetta)

I could use the flexability, but I dont want it at the expense of conversion quality