Advice: Aardvark Q10, Presonus FIREPOD, or Mackie Onyx
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Posted on Nov 02, 2004 03:00 pm
foryorent
Member Since: Nov 02, 2004
Hello everyone.
I am looking to start recording my band and I am looking for the best hardware for me. Right now I am between the Aardvark Q10, Personus FIREPOD, and the new Mackie Onyx series mixer with the Firewire card. So has anyone had the chance to hear the end results achieved by the three of these devices? Does anyone have any reason that they would not recommend any of these products? I am looking of the best recording possible, but other functionality is nice (like have a mixer on the onyx series). Does anyone know if the hardware (A/D converters, pre amps, ect.) are better on one of these than the other? I have heard that aardvark stuff has a great clock that really improves the performance of the A/D. Is this true. Would you be able to tell a difference between the three as far as A/D conversion goes?
Any way, thanks for any information that you guys can give me.
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Nov 04, 2004 09:51 am Does anyone have any experience that they can share with either three of these boxes? What about the digi design 002? I am looking for the best sound quality in this price range.
Does anyone have any prefrence between PCI card and Firewire? Any noticible differences in sound quality? Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks
for*yor*ent
Nov 04, 2004 09:53 am A few people here use the Aardvark and really dig it. The others I can't speak for personally.
There is now real sound quality difference from the bus type, tho PCI devices are internal, and therefore generally faster, but firewire is quite fast as well. All of them should give you good results, so I recommend you check out oany of them that you can in a store and just see which one seems most familiar and usable to you.
Like anything, you will get good and bad reviews on any given product, be prepared for it.
af_analogcrazy canuckMember
Since: Nov 25, 2004
Nov 25, 2004 04:11 pm Hey Foryorent, I just bought the Presonus FirePod and couldn't be happier...huge headroom, very low noise, zero latency, i could go on. The reason I went with the firewire over PCI was to get the A/D conversion away from the computer thus avoiding unwanted noise on your tracks. I was told that the FirePod's preamps were much better than anything else in it's price range and so far I am loving them! Hope this helps...
afa
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Nov 25, 2004 07:36 pm afa makea a good point if ya got the money to spend on the unit. It has had nothing but good reviews, and Presonus is well known for their pre's as well. They do build quality gear for sure. Although it is not in the budget minded builders price range it definately is one of the better buys in its price range.
af_analogcrazy canuckMember
Since: Nov 25, 2004
Nov 26, 2004 09:56 am I paid $800 Canadian for it brand new, when you look at the features you are getting, and the pre's you are getting I think it's a good bargain...It blew away everything I looked at in that price range. I couldn't find another unit with 8 powered XLR/TRS connections for less than $1000. I was going to put together a Behringer ADA8000 with a RME PCI card but it would have cost the same amount of money as the FirePod, and the FirePod is 96 kHz, 24 bit...the ADA8000 is standard 16 bit 44.1 kHz. I have been mixing the tracks that I recorded on it and I am honestly blown away by the end result...Hope you find what suits you best!
af_analogcrazy canuckMember
Since: Nov 25, 2004
Nov 26, 2004 10:31 am I forgot to mention the other main selling feature for me...It came with Cubase LE.
