ART DI/O

From Edison cylinders to pre-amps to ProTools: talk about it here.
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lukpac
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Postby lukpac » Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:07 am

Patrick, don't/didn't you have one of these?

ART DI/O

I see there's an "Input Gain" dial from 0 to 20dB. Am I correct in thinking that will only amplify an incoming signal, not attenuate it?

Is that "Tube Warmth" worth anything?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Patrick M
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Postby Patrick M » Sun Nov 21, 2004 12:12 pm

I have one, and it's on indefinite loan to Ryan for LP rips. I'm sure he could hook you up with some rips if you want to hear it. I haven't used it in a couple of years.
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Postby lukpac » Sun Nov 21, 2004 12:18 pm

Am I correct that 0dB is "no change" and it only gets louder from there?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Patrick M » Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:13 pm

I think that's correct, but rspaight is the one who can answer this best.
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Postby Rspaight » Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:33 pm

That's my experience, but I'll check to make sure when I hook it it up to the 775 as we discussed elsewhere.

Expect results later in the week.

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Postby lukpac » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:18 am

Results?

I took the plunge yesterday. It seems fine - there's less noise than the analog ins of my Audiophile 2496, which is a good thing - but as of yet I haven't heard any "tubey goodness". When you turn "Tube Warmth" all the way up things get a bit louder, but other than that, I guess I'm not hearing much. Any recordings where the tube really makes a difference?

As far as the input goes, yeah, I've found I really have to crank things to get near 0 dB, even with a CD player. For LP dubs I still have to go through my mixer first to get the levels up.

Seems silly that there isn't a power switch.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby krabapple » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:29 pm

The noise levels ofthe 2496 test out at better than -90 dB in bench test reviews I've seen -- is yours performing worse than that?
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Postby lukpac » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:33 pm

"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby krabapple » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:19 pm

noise at -70dB wouldn't bother me. I should check my own installation and see what the 'ambient' noise is.

Have you updated your driver?

There's a German version for OS X -- see comments as to why it's preferable to the American one
at http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13585

http://www.midiman.de/files/OSX_Delta_PCI_117.sit

but thsoe comments date from Sept 2004.

this one (from m-audio's site) is more recent -- and mentions an audio quality fix:

Delta Audiophile 2496 October 20, 2004 1.2.1 898.31 KB Delta_OSX_1.2.1.dmg

Release Notes Mac 10.3 (Panther),MacOS 10.2 (Jaguar)

- Fixes MIDI timing and recording issues
- Fixes OSX Unistall Problem
- Fixes Compatibility with Cubase SX and Peak
- Fixes Audio quality issues with AP2496
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Postby lukpac » Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:00 pm

krabapple wrote:noise at -70dB wouldn't bother me. I should check my own installation and see what the 'ambient' noise is.


As I pointed out in the other thread, I doubt it's something I could ever hear with actual audio going through. But it's something for me to be anal about.

I'll have to check again, but I think with the DI/O I'm getting around -90dB or something.

Have you updated your driver?


I have the newest one. And things are exactly the same in OS X as they are in OS 9, which suggests to me a hardware issue, not software. Especially since this problem doesn't exist in the G3.

I've got 3.1 Build 1011a for OS 9. The OS X one might not be the newest, but see above.

Nevertheless, now that I've got this DI/O, there's not much point to the analog ins on the Audiophile, other than for comparison purposes.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD