Re: [LAU] 384kHz DAC - Monolith USB?

ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net (Ralf Mardorf) writes: If you got 1€ of satisfaction out of every mention of your Hammerfall DSP, you probably got back its price threefold. If not its weight in gold. RME does not develop their own audio ADCs, they use similar converters as everybody else. Their analog circuitry around it is good and durable, and they are pretty good with continued driver support and also delivered good info in more active ALSA development times. In the mean time, converter development has moved on. The audio quality of quite a few setups can definitely hold a candle to that of older RME gear by now. And for now. In 10 years, gear might have died of hardware failure and/or bit rot while the RME keeps running as long as you can connect it to your computer, assuming you replaced the Asian power brick which has likely given up its ghost long ago but can be replaced by a wagonload of different choices. There have been listening tests for different ADC converters ranging from very affordable to very expensive. It's already rather hard to distinguish boutique preamps from run-of-the-mill preamps, and it's much harder to actually tell apart different converters in double-blind listening tests. It's really more the reliability and robustness and product value preservation that sets apart products like those from RME. The actual conversion quality, due to relying on the same kind of parts, is not as much an issue these days.