I have the tc konnekt 8, which I had some issues with using a dell with xp. It turned out that the dvd drive was the culprit, and I had to disable it in order to eliminate pops, and audio drop outs. Same with wlan, but not as severe.
I have no issues what so ever with my mac mini with leopard.

OK, that reason I ask is that I'm trying to decide if I want to go ahead and drop the coin on the Focal Twins now or wait until I have enough to upgrade my audio interface as well. When I did my testing, the units were connected to an Lynx Aurora. Several people I have spoken with who regularly deal with high end audio were telling me that if I hook them up to the MOTU 24 I/O I have now, all the flaws with the DAC's in that unit are going to be brought out loud and clear. DId you notice that phenomenon when you upgraded to your units?

I can't say I have.. But my room was never of THAT quality I'd think, to be able to tell. But quite honestly, without having much (if any) experience with many different speakers, DACs etc, I must say that I'd think the difference in (perceivable) sound quality is minimal - going above the standards of your motu or my konnekt.
My ears may not be as good as your, but I can certainly not "hear" anything bad. That may be because the konnekt is the best DAC I've had. If there is a difference between the konnekt, and for example the lynx I wouldn't know. I think sometimes people "hear" things, when there isn't really much to hear. I'm not saying there is no difference at all, but the perceivable quality difference can't be THAT big?

Ugh.. I hope this rambling makes sence

No, that's cool, it makes perfect sense.

Couple of other questions for you:

1. How big is your room? I only have an 11 x 12 room, so I'm a bit concerned that the monitors may be too much for the size of my room.

2. DO you have them on stands? If so, what kind of stands did you pick up? I'm trying to determine what kind of stands are going to be stable for these things since they are landscape oriented and need to be placed farther apart then my Mackies are now.

Last edited by Eric J on Sep-12-2008 at 18:57

Eric, If I were you I would get a better converter first and a then replace the Mackies with something a bit cheaper than Twin6s, like the BM15A or even the BM6A. With the money you save you can get a Fireface 800 and I think you would be more happy overall.

My old room was way narrower than that, and I had no problem. The room was deeper though, but that doesn't matter I'd think.
As long as you can make a perfect triangle between your head (as you know), and the two tweeters, I'd think you'd be ok! Some people even have them standing vertically, as they are designed to do, if necessary.
I made my own stands actually, but I'm going to buy some better stands soon. I have no idea what stands to honestly.

In my opinion: way better monitor quality way surpass the need of slighttttly better DAC quality.

PS: the solo 6 is also a very nice unit, about the same price as the dynaudios, with truer low end

Last edited by Beyer on Sep-12-2008 at 19:15

quote:

Originally posted by spolitta Eric, If I were you I would get a better converter first and a then replace the Mackies with something a bit cheaper than Twin6s, like the BM15A or even the BM6A. With the money you save you can get a Fireface 800 and I think you would be more happy overall.

See the only reason I stayed away from the Fireface was because I wanted to go with a PCI based system. I have heard great things from Fireface owners, so I know it is a quality interface. The general consensus I have researched is that the PCI based interfaces are better performing overall than the Firewire interfaces. The interface I was considering was the Lynx Aurora 8, which is PCI-based and allows 8 channels of analog along with 8 channels of digital connected via AES/EBU.

Bear in mind that most of my research is coming from people who seem to operate fairly high end studios, so I'm inclined to trust them a bit more simply because I see them work in environments outside the traditional EDM sphere. This may be misplaced trust, however, as I'm not sure if maybe what they are suggesting may be a bit too much for an EDM producer and maybe they do not fully understand my needs. Understand that I have recently decided to go completely in the box for sound generation, so my main concern here is straight DAC, from the audio interface to the monitors and that's all. The ADC is not as important as all the sound is generated in-the-box. This is why I'm sinking the proceeds from gear sales into the best quality audio interface and monitors that I think will suit my needs. Translation and clarity are the name of the game here, I need the most accurate monitoring that I can get so I can trust that what comes out of the monitors at home translates well on other systems.

So bearing all that in mind, what you are suggesting is that if I can only get either the audio interface or new monitors, that you think it would be smarter to pick up the better interface first, and then go for the better monitors? I'm not disputing this, but can you explain to me why you think I would be happier with a BM15A/Fireface combo versus a Focal Twin 6/Lynx Aurora combo?

Eric, Fireface 800 was just an example of a better converter and a better clock than your current one the Motu. If your budget allows you to upgrade your Motu and still get the twin6 go ahead for it. The point I was trying to make was if your budget is around $3000 to improve your studio, spend 2k on monitors and the rest on a better converter. Now about Lynx, I don't have any first hand experience with them, neither with the apogee stuff, but they are on same league as RME. You are right about PCI based interfaces being more stable than firewire in general, although I haven't had any problems with Motu 828mkII or the Fireface 800 which are both FW, but you still have a point there. As for monitors I'd go for the 3 way design over BM15A, first time I heard the S3As I knew I wanted them but since they are out of budget when the time comes I'll audition P33A and the Twin6 be, but I still like to keep my HR824s because I exactly know how EDM should sound on them so they will be a great set of reference monitors for me to keep.

quote:

Originally posted by spolitta Eric, Fireface 800 was just an example of a better converter and a better clock than your current one the Motu. If your budget allows you to upgrade your Motu and still get the twin6 go ahead for it. The point I was trying to make was if your budget is around $3000 to improve your studio, spend 2k on monitors and the rest on a better converter.

OK, good that makes sense and I definitely see you point. I've got the budget to upgrade both, but not necessarily at the same time. It all depends on how I want to work it. I am trying to debate internally if I should wait until I get enough cash to order both the monitors and the audio interface at the same time or go ahead and get one of them now and the other in a month or two when I have the cash for it. See it's kind of a Catch-22. If I get the monitors now, they might not sound as good with my MOTU, but if I get the audio interface now, it might not sound as good with the HR824's. Decisions, decisions....

quote:

Originally posted by spolitta Now about Lynx, I don't have any first hand experience with them, neither with the apogee stuff, but they are on same league as RME. You are right about PCI based interfaces being more stable than firewire in general, although I haven't had any problems with Motu 828mkII or the Fireface 800 which are both FW, but you still have a point there.

See that was one of the things that intrigued me about the Aurora. I'm hesitant about going from a stable PCI interface to a potentially unstable Firewire based one. I just feel better about the PCI based solutions because there are fewer variables. IN addition, the Aurora has incredible expansion capability, which is something that the Firewire interfaces in that range do not have. You can even use it as an I/O for Pro Tools with the addition of a LT-HD card, so that option is open to me should I decide to go that route in the future.

I was going to go with an Apogee Ensemble, but more than one person who has experience with both Apogee and Lynx stuff explained to me that the converters on the Lynx were a whole lot more transparent (even than that AD/DA 16X), both AD and DA. Those same people talked to me about how Apogee pushes the "Apogee sound", which translates to a small bump in the 200-400Hz range. I don't want "bumps" in my AD/DA conversion, I want flat and apparently the Lynx products are right up there with some of the Prism stuff, according to those who I have spoken to.

Anyway, since I can't really afford to test them all out for myself, I'm forced to go with the advice of people who know more than I do and who have experience with all these products. I suspect many people are in this boat.

quote:

Originally posted by spolitta As for monitors I'd go for the 3 way design over BM15A, first time I heard the S3As I knew I wanted them but since they are out of budget when the time comes I'll audition P33A and the Twin6 be, but I still like to keep my HR824s because I exactly know how EDM should sound on them so they will be a great set of reference monitors for me to keep.

I was debating on whether or not to keep my HR824's for the exact same reason. While they may not be as transparent or detailed as something like the P33A's or Focal Twins, they are a good choice for mixing club music as you stated. IMO, its always good to have extra sets of monitors around to check your mix. Hell, that's why I have a cheap pair of computers speakers in there as well, just to test mixes on consumer grade speakers, which is where many people will hear your music.

I may end up keeping the HR824's for this purpose, although the Mackies always seem to get lambasted by those outside the EDM circle.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J If I get the monitors now, they might not sound as good with my MOTU, but if I get the audio interface now, it might not sound as good with the HR824's. Decisions, decisions....

Buy them now, and use the time to "burn" them in.. They probably won't sound like the bomb the first hours of use. I don't know how long it took before them started to open up, but they gradually sounded better and better.
I just refuse to believe that your motu will make them sound bad, honestly. But anyway, you'll have your monitors worn in when you get your new interface. Win - win situation.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J If I get the monitors now, they might not sound as good with my MOTU, but if I get the audio interface now, it might not sound as good with the HR824's. Decisions, decisions....

I also had to choose between the two except that I knew I wasn't going to be able to buy the second item for another year but still went for the fireface and decided to wait for new monitors. My synths are mostly outboard so that alone made the decision much easier to make for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J Anyway, since I can't really afford to test them all out for myself, I'm forced to go with the advice of people who know more than I do and who have experience with all these products. I suspect many people are in this boat.

Converters are less matter of preferences compared to monitors so I'd have no problem taking other people's advice in the know. Coming from MOTU you can't go wrong with any of those in your list.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J I may end up keeping the HR824's for this purpose, although the Mackies always seem to get lambasted by those outside the EDM circle.

I'd say at least keep them until you become more fimilar with the twins.

OK, I think I m going to go ahead and pick up the Focal Twins as soon as the cash for those becomes available, then get the audio interface a few weeks later. I have heard others concur with Beyer that you need to give these monitors time to "burn in" before they start to sound the way they are supposed to. One guy mentioned that he got his and left them running with full spectrum music for like 12 hours straight to burn them in, so that sounds like a good approach to take.

Thanks for all the advice guys, its always good to get tips from people who not only own the product, but are satisfied with the results.