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Presonus Quantum - Aggregate be damned!

Following on from that 808 thread.

I've been talking to my man at Scan.co.uk, and these things are supposedly awesome.

Key points for me :-

1) 24 channels of inputs/outputs (8 plus twin ADAT).
2) Better latency than a UFX (Scan benchmark)
3) Daisy chainable over TB (4 units, giving 96 channels of input/output - excluding spdif).
4) About �/$1k

For most home users this must surely negate the need of MADI, which would end up being much more expensive.

I'm pretty much sold. I'm loathe to abandon RME, but the drivers on this thing are apparently rock solid on both Mac and PC.



https://www.presonus.com/products/Quantum

Looks tasty but if you're in that price bracket, I'd look at a used Apogee ensemble - I just saw one in great condition for $600 and from personal experience, that thing is rock solid at 4ms latency. They're incredible. We were actually using them alongside PTHD rigs and the Ensemble sounded better. We then figured out that you can fudge PTHD rigs to use the Apogee's (that was before it all went native).

Or you could go for the Element which is 16 x 16 for $1400 new.

Or Symphony which is one the best interfaces ever made for $2400 with 30 x 34.

How are you going to handle the ADAT on the presonus? The old behringer converters?

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Looks tasty but if you're in that price bracket, I'd look at a used Apogee ensemble - I just saw one in great condition for $600 and from personal experience, that thing is rock solid at 4ms latency. They're incredible. We were actually using them alongside PTHD rigs and the Ensemble sounded better. We then figured out that you can fudge PTHD rigs to use the Apogee's (that was before it all went native). Or you could go for the Element which is 16 x 16 for $1400 new. Or Symphony which is one the best interfaces ever made for $2400 with 30 x 34. How are you going to handle the ADAT on the presonus? The old behringer converters?

What draws me is the hassle free 4 x daisy chaining. I already have 2-4ms latency with my RME (at 64-128), and this is apparently even better.

I can't use Apogee on PC anyway, but the comparable model here is �2.5k. I can't imagine them being much less than �1500 used. Although I guess older ones will be a lot cheaper.

I'm not sure what I'll use for ADAT yet, possibly a couple of Octopres.

I also need to buy a new PC that can handle TB3

I'm done with Mac's as a main DAW now.

Fair enough. Tbh, below 4ms latency and it's debatable whether you can actually hear the difference. Prices still seem a bit crazy in the UK, at least for US brands. I found two ensembles for sale (one at guitar center with a warranty) for as little as $600.

But it's useless if you're mac anyway. What's the deal with that? I'll use both but each day my 2008 imac keeps rolling (while on my 3rd PC laptop in the same period is about to crap out) my faith in apple is a little restored.

It may be a little expensive ($1k) but I've heard that the Ferrofish units are meant to be really nice. The cheapest route is the old Behringer ada8000's and honestly they're
pretty damn clean and amazing value. Octopre's are nice though and not too pricey.

My issue with Macs is Apple's current obsession with built in obsolescence. The new MBP dropping magsafe, dropping the TB ports I have dongles for meaning I need new dongles etc. The obsession with soldered RAM, hard drives etc. Just leaves a sour taste in my mouth as I know all the products are priced so that what you think is entry level isn't actually entry level, it's the 'useless' level. Whatever price you see, add �500/$700 to that. The Mac Pro is a ludicrously priced device. But anyway, this isn't an Apple rant (LIAR!!!).

I might actually just go for one ADA8200 and an Octopre. I looked at the Ferrofish converters too, but the reality is that I'll never notice the difference.

For me, a couple of ms better latency is desirable as I'll be live tracking multiple synth inputs, and by the time you have midi out and audio back into the DAW, latency does start to become a bigger issue. The less compensation I have to do, the better!

I do think easy daisy chaining of interfaces over TB is the future though. Until Apple drop TB for the next new big thing

Lol, you're absolutely right. I'm using old Imacs, with my "newest" being 2012 which was just before the point of no return in terms of Apple's endless crusade to make nothing upgradeable. I have a friend who has a new macbook air and literally nothing is changeable/upgradeable. Even replacing the screen is a total nightmare.

Honestly, I'd just go with the behringer units. I know tons of guys that use them on serious front ends and they work great. Midas also helped develop the mic pres so they're probably perfectly good.

Optical ports are for ADAT expansion. For example you could attach an ADA8200 to give you 8 more inputs for each pair of ADAT connectors. This means you'd have 24 physical inputs plus spdif per Quantum, and given that you can daisy chain 4 of them, that'll give you 96 physical inputs without the need for aggregate devices or MADI.

You can't daisy chain like this with USB, as far as I know.

quote:

Originally posted by tehlord Optical ports are for ADAT expansion. For example you could attach an ADA8200 to give you 8 more inputs for each pair of ADAT connectors. This means you'd have 24 physical inputs plus spdif per Quantum, and given that you can daisy chain 4 of them, that'll give you 96 physical inputs without the need for aggregate devices or MADI. You can't daisy chain like this with USB, as far as I know.

You can't daisy chain USB because it's a basic master and slave protocol meaning the device can only pass data between it and the master, not on to another slave unit, whereas thunderbolt and firewire are peer to peer meaning sees each extra device as another peer, passing data back and forth between them. Usually the limit is 4 audio devices simply because the bandwidth gets a little too stretched otherwise.

ADAT works really nicely, but I'm not too much of a fan of SPDIF as it uses 1 bit for sync and usually the jitter is heavier than other formats.

Go for the behringer units - best bang for buck.

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