ADA8000 just as a D/A?

[rty5150]

has anyone used an ada8000 just for the ability to get 8 more outs?
as most of you know, i have a presonus firestudio 2626 with 2 digimax D8's for my inputs, but am limited to the 8 outs on the FS. i acquired an ada8000 for free and found that i can just use the digial outs from the ada8000 fed from my adat outs. anyone else try something like this? if so, how is the conversion? any issues?

[octatonic]

Those converters are pretty dreadful.
I'd give it a miss.

[Mertmo]

Depends on your budget and perspective. They are not the best ever, but they are not
at all "dreadful", that's going a bit too far IMO.

If you can afford better, you will definitely get what you pay for. But if you are on a
shoestring and you need 8 more channels of D/A, then the ADA8000 will do the job
more than decently for the price. Never had an issue with mine...

[kesslerjesus]

They did a comparison between the lynx aurora and the ADA8000,
judge for yourself:

Lynx Aurora 16 vs Behringer ADA8000

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by kesslerjesus

They did a comparison between the lynx aurora and the ADA8000,
judge for yourself:

Lynx Aurora 16 vs Behringer ADA8000

read that, too. didn't have time for ALL 11 PAGES!!!

yeah, shoestring doesn't begin to describe the budget i'm on. more like nonexistent. i am actually trying to get a digimax FS to replace on of my D8's, if not both, but since i have the ada8000 for free and have the cables, why not try, but i was hoping to see if anyone has put it up against the other low enders out there for just D/A conversion.

[kesslerjesus]

Originally Posted by rty5150

read that, too. didn't have time for ALL 11 PAGES!!!

yeah, shoestring doesn't begin to describe the budget i'm on. more like nonexistent. i am actually trying to get a digimax FS to replace on of my D8's, if not both, but since i have the ada8000 for free and have the cables, why not try, but i was hoping to see if anyone has put it up against the other low enders out there for just D/A conversion.

I see where you're coming from. To sum it up, most people chose the behringer over the lynx...that was...until the results were put up and then most choices started becoming votes for the lynx LOL. Either way, they explained that the reason most people chose the Behringer over the lynx at first (before knowing which was which) was because of a small hype in the highs that people are usually drawn to. I think a lot of people felt nasty after hearing the results and realizing that they chose a Behringer product over a lynx sometime in their lifetimes, kinda like waking up after a drunk night of crazy sex with a hideous monster that you thought looked pretty hot when wasted

If its the best you can do for now, I don't think you can lose anything from giving it a go and deciding for yourself. Just my 2 cents.

[MrCrowbar]

I wouldn't use it to do out the box mixing, the converters and output amps will offset any benefits of using analog mixing and summing.

If you need lots of outputs just so you can mix with an analog mixer (I'm thinking of any live application where speed is crucial). It's also perfectly fine for monitoring mixes.

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by MrCrowbar

I wouldn't use it to do out the box mixing, the converters and output amps will offset any benefits of using analog mixing and summing.

If you need lots of outputs just so you can mix with an analog mixer (I'm thinking of any live application where speed is crucial). It's also perfectly fine for monitoring mixes.

i will be doing OTB processing with it, but my main outs will be the ones from my FS. the ada8000 would be seeing mostly printed spatial effects that i can blend. i guess that once i get it in the rack and patched in, i can shootout the D/A conversion between the 2 units.
keep in mind, i AM NOT using the inputs/preamps in the ada8000, just the D/A. i actually love the ins of the presonus, but use outboard pres for 18 of them. this is not including my soundworkshop and ramsa board pres.

[sam guaiana]

I know a guy who uses the ada8000 just for headphone mixes out. Also DO NOT clock with it.

[Stevil]

Originally Posted by rty5150

yeah, shoestring doesn't begin to describe the budget i'm on. more like nonexistent.

then you are the target demographic for this product. mine have served me well for many years. i'll be happy to upgrade them as soon as i have a spare couple grand to drop on converters.

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by sam guaiana

I know a guy who uses the ada8000 just for headphone mixes out. Also DO NOT clock with it.

well, i will be using the FS 2626 as master clock. why do you advise against clocking the ada8000?

[Steab]

Dreafull? Hilarious. Like the "my analog compressor sounds more ..3d" thing.

In the lynx aurora vs Ada800 shoot-out 15 either mistook the Behringer's for the Aurora's or preferred them, 4 picked correctly or preferred the Auroras.

Even slutz cant tell the difference, and if they can tell a difference they can't tell which is which.
Now, whether you think the ada800 is the best buy for you or not, that's your decision.

[Mertmo]

Since you already have it and all the cable, forget this thread and just hook it up!
You will know if you dig it pretty quick.
I'm sure it will work fine for mixing OTB, especially on low priority signals.

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by Mertmo2

Since you already have it and all the cable, forget this thread and just hook it up!
You will know if you dig it pretty quick.
I'm sure it will work fine for mixing OTB, especially on low priority signals.

plan on it, later this afternoon. gotta get out to the studio to do so! was trying to get an idea on peoples experiences.

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by Steab

Dreafull? Hilarious. Like the "my analog compressor sounds more ..3d" thing.

In the lynx aurora vs Ada800 shoot-out 15 either mistook the Behringer's for the Aurora's or preferred them, 4 picked correctly or preferred the Auroras.

Even slutz cant tell the difference, and if they can tell a difference they can't tell which is which.
Now, whether you think the ada800 is the best buy for you or not, that's your decision.

nope, i have used dreadful...it's called soundblaster pro and realtec "hi-fi" soundcards at a whopping 16bit/44.1khz!

that is pure dreadful.

[octatonic]

I maintain my earlier assertion of 'pretty dreadful'.
I owned it, I did the A/B tests, IMHO it is pretty dreadful.

As far as a GS blind test, wasn't that done with mp3?

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by octatonic

I maintain my earlier assertion of 'pretty dreadful'.
I owned it, I did the A/B tests, IMHO it is pretty dreadful.

As far as a GS blind test, wasn't that done with mp3?

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily invalidate the test. Though I would also be one to insist that really good converters do make a difference, it's pretty hard to argue with those informal poll results.

Frank

[rufus13]

When you need more i/o and you are not going to put them high in the mix. Heater duct reverb.

When you are out of better analog outs and need individual cue mixes for musicians.

When you are using a 002R and need more i/o (at least as good as Digi i/o).

cheap can be just fine. Best $215 (incl. s/h!) 8-channel *anything* I have ever bought.

Beh.....r is not known for super quality control (although the wave soldering looks good). Mine might be a lot better or worse than yours., but it works now- err last time it worked.

Cheers.

[MrCrowbar]

Originally Posted by rty5150

i will be doing OTB processing with it, but my main outs will be the ones from my FS. the ada8000 would be seeing mostly printed spatial effects that i can blend. i guess that once i get it in the rack and patched in, i can shootout the D/A conversion between the 2 units.
keep in mind, i AM NOT using the inputs/preamps in the ada8000, just the D/A. i actually love the ins of the presonus, but use outboard pres for 18 of them. this is not including my soundworkshop and ramsa board pres.

Then I'd say, go for the Behringer. It's one of the few peaces of gear that is totally worth the money because you have 8 ins and outs for cheap. If you can clock it from the 2626, that should indeed work pretty well. I like the typical Presonus A/D and D/A too, I just wish they would space out the gain knobs on their Firestudio line more or just put them beneath the XLR connector like everyone else.

For blending in reverb, delays, etc. the ADA8000 is fine.

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by MrCrowbar

I like the typical Presonus A/D and D/A too, I just wish they would space out the gain knobs on their Firestudio line more or just put them beneath the XLR connector like everyone else.

For blending in reverb, delays, etc. the ADA8000 is fine.

yeah, the gain pots are a poor design on the FS 2626 and digimax FS, but the D8 is way better on layout. only problem is that you have to either leave everything plugged up to it or feed it to a patchbay. the phantom is a pain if you need it as well. since i have it patched and use it only for inputs, the cleanliness of the D8 is perfect in my rack.

yeah, the ada8000 was more for printing of reverbs, delays, chorus, so that i could blend them. it may get toms and room duties as well, but nothing on a critical basis. hell, if i a/b them with the presonus and the difference is marginal, i may get another!

[donsolo]

Lynx Aurora does not belong in the Low End. It's not low end equipment.

The Behr has just as capable of a DAC as your interface. The clock is very unstable but if you're syncing (the ADAT actually sends sync info IIRC, make sure to set the back panel properly) you're fine.

A/D/A is the last thing in your rig to worry about if you're making records with things you're getting for free from friends.

Quit stressing and start tracking!

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by donsolo

Lynx Aurora does not belong in the Low End. It's not low end equipment.

The Behr has just as capable of a DAC as your interface. The clock is very unstable but if you're syncing (the ADAT actually sends sync info IIRC, make sure to set the back panel properly) you're fine.

A/D/A is the last thing in your rig to worry about if you're making records with things you're getting for free from friends.

Quit stressing and start tracking!

it's all good, the ada8000 came up nicely, but the presonus universal control console is setup for 32 channels only.
that is:
24 inputs and 8 outs or
16 inputs and 16 outs.

considering that i have 24 inputs and now 16 outs, trying to see how presonus deals with this little problem considering they promote this as a 26x26.

[tampa]

Originally Posted by rty5150

has anyone used an ada8000 just for the ability to get 8 more outs?
as most of you know, i have a presonus firestudio 2626 with 2 digimax D8's for my inputs, but am limited to the 8 outs on the FS. i acquired an ada8000 for free and found that i can just use the digial outs from the ada8000 fed from my adat outs. anyone else try something like this? if so, how is the conversion? any issues?

It will work Rich, I've done it, I use to use it to give a few extra analog ins on my sound card when I ran out of decent preamps and needed to feed a couple more instruments through to get the drums down. It's not bad, it's not great but it works.


Pete

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by tampa

It will work Rich, I've done it, I use to use it to give a few extra analog ins on my sound card when I ran out of decent preamps and needed to feed a couple more instruments through to get the drums down. It's not bad, it's not great but it works.


Pete

sounds like you use it to get more inputs, but i am looking for just the opposite: outputs.
so far i can cheat it, but the universal control console is pissing me off. got presonus tech support on the line just to have them put me on hold and cut me off. when i called back the line went straight to voicemail. WTF?!?!?
oh well, we will see what i can figure out tonight and then get pissed at them tomorrow.
all of this happened less than 10 minutes of this posting. .

[White Falcon]

Originally Posted by Steab

Dreafull? Hilarious. Like the "my analog compressor sounds more ..3d" thing.

In the lynx aurora vs Ada800 shoot-out 15 either mistook the Behringer's for the Aurora's or preferred them, 4 picked correctly or preferred the Auroras.

Even slutz cant tell the difference, and if they can tell a difference they can't tell which is which.
Now, whether you think the ada800 is the best buy for you or not, that's your decision.

Yeah, that test was for the A/D conversion @ 44.1 right?

But the OP. will be using it for D/A conversion.

Kudos to Behringer (or RME who did the design) for the ADA8000s A/D.
The D/A on the ADA8000 is not even close to the Lynx D/A.

[Mr.HOLMES]

I would not mind to use the behringer ADA 8000 a Tech told me that is a RME rip off....... you should not use the pres....they sound awful.....keep in mind taht the ADA 8000 sometimes blow because of too much heat you can read nice stories on other boards about this.

if you get the unit you should take care for some ventilation slots on top of the case...

[tampa]

Originally Posted by Mr.HOLMES

I would not mind to use the behringer ADA 8000 a Tech told me that is a RME rip off....... you should not use the pres....they sound awful.....keep in mind taht the ADA 8000 sometimes blow because of too much heat you can read nice stories on other boards about this.

if you get the unit you should take care for some ventilation slots on top of the case...

Nonsense. The reason the ADA 8000 sounds the way it does is because of inferior op amps, as the matter of fact they don't use op amps in the traditional sense, it has nothing to do with heat, I owned one for about five years and never had a lick of trouble with it. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't sound good either, but it worked and it worked well. It is a very usable unit for certain things.

Pete

[Mr.HOLMES]

Originally Posted by tampa

Nonsense. The reason the ADA 8000 sounds the way it does is because of inferior op amps, as the matter of fact they don't use op amps in the traditional sense, it has nothing to do with heat, I owned one for about five years and never had a lick of trouble with it. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't sound good either, but it worked and it worked well. It is a very usable unit for certain things.

Pete

If you would read carefully what I wrote...please!!!
I did not wrote that it sounds bad because of the heat!!

I just wrote that there is a heat Problem with the unit.
You also can find mods about this topic in the internet.

I did my homework and investigated on this unit very well because I use it as well for more I/O and I can not hear a significant difference to my RME FF 800....
Anyway the mic pres on it sound very bad to my ear.

BTW please stop calling my opinion NONSENSE!
I didn't write anything mean to you!!
I think I deserve the same respect by YOU!!

[rty5150]

Originally Posted by tampa

Nonsense. The reason the ADA 8000 sounds the way it does is because of inferior op amps, as the matter of fact they don't use op amps in the traditional sense, it has nothing to do with heat, I owned one for about five years and never had a lick of trouble with it. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't sound good either, but it worked and it worked well. It is a very usable unit for certain things.

Pete

well, i wonder if i could just upgrade the opamps in this unit. if they are socketed, then piece of cake, soldered in...then yarggh!

[Samuelito]

Some where in this forum someone posted a mod for the ADA8000s that bypasses the preamps and let the line inputs to send the signal straight to the outputs.
If you lock them with an external clock IMHO they can become really good converters.

Sam