[LAU] Microphone Pre-amp with an S/PDIF output?

[Len Ovens]

On Tue, 17 Jun 2014, Ivan K wrote:

> My current audio card is a an M-Audio 2496, which has
> RCA and S/PDIF inputs.
>
> Due to the phasing out of PCI slots, it seems
> that USB interfaces are what most people are choosing
> to purchase these days.
>
> However, I was thinking about getting a microphone pre-amp
> with an s/pdif output.  My thinking is:

That is what I do. I have an ART USBDualTube Pre which also has s/pdif 
out. The only thing I don't like about the unit is that there is no 
external sync on it.

>  (1) One will always be able to buy PCIe cards in the
>  future with S/PDIF

I am not seeing this... in my price range :)

> However, it seems that the options for such a pre-amp
> are limited.  I found the following items:
>
>    (1) ART DPS-II Digital/Tube $265
>    The price does not seem unreasonable for a quality pre-amp.
>    This thing does have a lot of knobs though, and therefore
>    probably has more functionality than I know what to do with.

I have been happy with my unit which is simpler but that one has clock in. 
I have heard that inout impedance is good for ribon mics too. I can't 
speak of the quality as I have not used one. There are really not so many 
knobs as you suppose:

 	- input imedance
 	- tube stage gain
 	- output level
 	- Phantom power
 	- phase (not needed for mostly mono recording, but if you ever do
 		vocals and guitar together...)
 	- V3 is a lot about how distorted the signal gets  ;) It allows
 		The tube to act as a limiter. They call it valve voicing.
 		It is one of those set it to where it "sounds nice"
 		things.

>    (2) Samson C-Valve Tube Microphone Preamp $99
>    This item is discontinued but still available on amazon.
>    This item did not review well on this list, but ...
>    it is inexpensive.

Don't know.

> So what do people think of this plan?  Or do people recommend
> that I just go ahead and get a USB interface?

USB support is up and down (I see a lot of alsa bug reports) minimum 
latency will be a bit higher than with a pci card. I would tend to choose 
firewire over USB, though the cost is a little higher. They seem to be 
more solid/stable.

As I have done the same thing (I made sure my new MB had PCI slots), I am 
probably biased :)

USB interupts and internal hubs make finding the right port to use a 
little more difficult, but I was able to get mine running with jack at 
64/2 in a stable fashion... The ICE1712 PCI will do jack at 16/2 with no 
xruns wich is nice for using it for live effects/midi but probably not 
really needed for recording.


--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net