Korg 880DA

[ceecrb1]

anybody know of the korg 880DA's?

 

They seem not so new, but going 2nd hand in many places for about the same price as a behringer ada8000, but I´m GUESSING better audio quality and I'd also expect better reliabilty..

 

Yes I know one unit is output and another for input.... but still... opinions?

[dan slv-tech]

anybody know of the korg 880DA's?

 

They seem not so new, but going 2nd hand in many places for about the same price as a behringer ada8000, but I´m GUESSING better audio quality and I'd also expect better reliabilty..

 

Yes I know one unit is output and another for input.... but still... opinions?

 

Personally id go for focusrite octopre LE - can do both from the same unit at the same time.

I paid about less than £370 for both mine new with word clock cards.

Gives me 8 pres with variable gain on XLR and 8 jacks output.

External PSU is only gripe but in a rack and liveable

 

D

[dirkenstein]

I think these may be quite old tech now- sold as expansion for the Korg soundlink 168rc desk from the late '90s. I think the DACs are only 18 bit. You might be better off with an Alesis AI3 if you're going the vintage digital secondhand route.

 

Do you just need DA? If you need AD conversion as well, do you need mic pres?

 

That said, I haven't heard the Korg units.

[ceecrb1]

honestly I´m really interested in outputs more than inputs..

Most of my jobs are geared more towards sending many feeds off to various locations (zones on site, ob trucks, radio, etc etc etc).

 

Eg one large job I do is, an L&R from a DJ, Then for 15 mins, 2 wireless mics... But I send to: main pa, subs, monitors, a bar area, a 2nd bar area, radio, live tv, recorded tv and my own monitors..... thank god for the LS9's custom fader level is all I can say!

yes I know the "press" can all just go through a pressbox.. but they just all get so annoying, each one wanting more, or less, or some dynamics as they only have a small basic mixer (the recording tv guys)... Life is just easier giving each what they want...

 

I've been scratching my head and the only reason I can think of for the extra inputs is that inside the rack I can use a talkback mic and just leave it patched..

 

I'm getting to the stage of, if I´m going to spend so much cash on an adat unit and card, I might as well just fork out for one of the analogue expansion cards and have done with it.

[dirkenstein]

They seem not so new, but going 2nd hand in many places for about the same price as a behringer ada8000, but I´m GUESSING better audio quality and I'd also expect better reliabilty..

You're not going to get vastly improved _output_ audio quality on something other than the Behringer unless you have a fetishistic dislike of tl074s or the wavefront / cirrus (depending on age) DA chips used in the ada8000. Admittedly the circuit is a slightly silly topology that could result in a very small phase shift between the hot and cold legs of the output, but I can't imagine it has any practical impact.

 

You can however improve on the _input_ audio quality of the ada8000- the mic pres are 'usable' rather than 'wonderful' sounding and do tend to introduce noise at high gain. Perfectly OK unless you crank them, though.

 

Beware the modern ADA8000 does have a potentially annoying problem with output muting and ramping that can chop off the start of audio if a _very_ quiet channel (digital black) is being played through an output before your track starts. Mostly seen with DAWs that pad output to digital black during track silence.

 

Any ADA8000 reliabilty problems (reports of failing mains transformers and linear regulators) can generally be overcome by not rackmounting them directly on top of each other and running them undervoltage (around 200-210v) to protect the dumb linear PSUs.

 

I'm getting to the stage of, if I´m going to spend so much cash on an adat unit and card, I might as well just fork out for one of the analogue expansion cards and have done with it.

 

There are no Yamaha 16ch analogue expansion cards and the LS9-32 will only take two cards (the LS9-16 takes one). If you think you might need more I/O in future then the my16-at 16ch ADAT card might be a better investment, especially on an LS9-16 with no further expansion capability.

 

If you're willing to live with a DB24 -> 8x XLR fan-out cable the my8-da96 is the better choice analogue out card- the my4da only has 20-bit dacs (and 4 XLR outputs). The my4da has the advantage of being comparatively inexpensive, even new.

 

The my8-adda96 (8 in/8 out) card is expensive and does not come with pre-made fan-out cables (you have to use the included connectors).

 

All of these cards do turn up secondhand on the usual auction sites quite regularly. Make sure that any cards you buy come with the fan-out cables as they're expensive to replace with ones of similar quality (they come with Van Damme multipair cable and Neutrik connectors).

[ceecrb1]

Thanks for the advice..

 

Yeah I got one of the 8 channel io adat cards REALLY cheap from from fleabay.. Not even installed it yet and I might put it back on auction and just go for the 8 channel out analogue card.. Will do fine for "less important" areas, bars, radio (that tx in fm only) etc.. Plus it aint going to be that much of a quality drop, when you compare it to the standard of mp3 we are handed for gigs lately.

Just feels better being a card installed in the desk than chewing up another rackspace.

 

I have the ls9 16.. I'm not looking to gain the full 32 channels, if I needed that I can hire the stagebox and card from a local company, for the one or two jobs I might actually need that..

Like I say, just a few more paired outputs will help me a lot with the jobs I'm doing..

[ceecrb1]

Any ADA8000 reliabilty problems (reports of failing mains transformers and linear regulators) can generally be overcome by not rackmounting them directly on top of each other and running them undervoltage (around 200-210v) to protect the dumb linear PSUs.

 

 

On a side note, would people say this (rack mounting) is also true for the ultradrive and ultracurve's?

I´'m guessing they would have the same or very similar PSU's?

 

I've just fleabayed myself a 2nd hand ultracurve, so now I have 2..

 

Problem is I only have a 6U rack, which already has in it:

a 2u CD player

1 ultracurve

1 ultradrive

a 2x8 DA

a wireless access point (remote ls9 editing)

 

Currently the DA is in the back of the case.. lets be honest it just turns on and is patched to the rear patchbay.. no touching needed... so I have in the front:

2u CD:

1u space:

ultracurve:

1u space:

ultradrive...

 

would others steer away from blocking up one of the 1u spaces and should I find a bigger case or is the ultracurve ok to pair up?