looking for an external A/D(D/A) with battery power options - laptop

[hrn]

Hi guys,
I'm looking for a *good* external A/D(D/A) with battery power options. It has to be possible to connect it to a laptop in some way.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
Hans

[Sound Sorcerer]

Take a look at the Denecke AD-20. Then you just need a laptop with SPDIF input. There's also other stereo interfaces that will draw power from your laptop, like the M-Box and such...

[Coolstuff]

One of the best 2 channel USB interfaces is the Sound Devices USBPre. It's bus powered, has very good mic pre's, and playback monitoring

There are also USB interfaces from Mackie, M-Audio, Tascam and many others.

[sonare]

I owned a USBPre for about a year and in that time Sound Devices could not do any better towards helping me eliminate what soundied like a clocking problem than "we're a small company and don't have the resources to solve OS X driver problems."

The sound wasn't bad but clicks and poor support is a big thumbs-down if you are a Mac user. It was also an issue with the Mac OS to remember how to communicate correctly between devices. Maybe Windows users have a happier story to tell, but if you want better than "OK" pres and ADC keep looking.

And yes, I was recording to an external FWD.

The pres and ADC were only OK but I would stick to firewire (I am a happy Onyx owner now). And the battery drain was significant-- full charge to empty in less than an hour.

Rich