digi003 rack plus users! ....question?

[Bobalou]

now that the rack plus comes with 8 built in mic pre's, would you say the 003 converters and those pre's have been improved to the level of say a presonus digimax96 or LT?

thanks

[chrysb93065]

We have a stock 003 rack 1 year old. The 4 pres on board are probably as good as the ones you mentioned, although we haven't tried the new ones. For 'serious' recording, outboard pres through the direct inputs are always better, but keyboards and maybe drums would be OK.

[Bobalou]

Originally Posted by chrysb93065

For 'serious' recording, outboard pres through the direct inputs are always better, but keyboards and maybe drums would be OK.

true and that has always be the goal since the 001/002 days.

the 001 and 002 pre's IMO werent very usable not even for extra pre's when recording drums. .. if the 003's pre's/converters are on the same level as the digimax (for example) to me, that would be considered very usable and eliminates the need for an additional 8 channel mic pre/converter?

If i can get an idea from folks using the 003, I'm thinkin about trading up from the 001 to the 003 and wonder how good the new digi pre's/converters are these days?

thanks

[chrysb93065]

For all the bashing 003's, M-boxes and M-Audio stuff with PTLE gets around here, the convertors on the 003 are clean and reliable. If it's ultra high end, we'd have to spend more than the cost of a DIGI 192 system for Prism, Benchmark or Aurora's. The pre's are clean and translate the incoming signal accurately. If you get 8 pres on the newest one, use maybe a couple of MA5's with comps to 2 direct channels for critical stuff, and the other six for everything else. JMHO

[Don S]

Originally Posted by chrysb93065

For all the bashing 003's, M-boxes and M-Audio stuff with PTLE gets around here, the convertors on the 003 are clean and reliable. If it's ultra high end, we'd have to spend more than the cost of a DIGI 192 system for Prism, Benchmark or Aurora's. The pre's are clean and translate the incoming signal accurately. If you get 8 pres on the newest one, use maybe a couple of MA5's with comps to 2 direct channels for critical stuff, and the other six for everything else. JMHO

Agreed with one exception. The first 4 inputs double as mic pres and have less headroom because the line level is still going through the preamp stage at an attenuated level. The last 4 on the standard 003R are, as stated above, very usable.