On Mi, 2012-04-04 at 12:05 -0400, Al Thompson wrote:

On 04/04/2012 11:55 AM, Gerald Mwangi wrote:

Hi guys,
I want to buy a usb sound card with the following specs:
16 input channels :
    at least 8 Mic ins,
    the rest line ins, intrument ins or ADAT ins (optical)
    no spdif

output channels:
    8 would be nice but not a must

price: 300-350 €

I have these on my list:
http://www.thomann.de/de/256918tascam_us1800.htm (has no ADAT, but only spdif)

http://www.thomann.de/de/phonic_firefly_808_retour.htm (unkown manufacturer, at least to me)

Neither of the two you list meet your criteria. The Tascam only provides 14 inputs (not counting the S/PDIF), and the Firefly is Firewire only.

I don't know of a 16x4 USB device right off hand.

Well the 'no spdif' criteria is a weak one, since i have an spdif/ADAT<-> 8 channel mixer (Fostex vm200). But I don't really want to use the mixer just for 2 channels. The firefly 808 u is usb and firewire.