Registered: 02/15/00
Posts: 18
Loc: Federal Way WA USA
Offline
Thank you for this forum, it's a great service!
I was surprised to say the least when discussing "Apogee" converters today with a Tech from Echo that they would not improve the overall sound quality of my current system, Layla or my future system which will either be Paris or Pro tools 24 mix.
The converters for Layla and I assume most other home studio level cards are on the PCI card inside the computer. This is where conversion takes place. If a high end stand alone converter is placed somewhere within the link but eventually travels to the PCI card then what's the point? This was the way it was explained to me but there is something wrong with this picture.
The majority of consumers who use Layla or cards of this price point would not be planning to add an Apogee PSX 100. I want to because I'm convinced it will help now and when I move to P.T. or Paris. Am I correct?
Your thoughts on all of this would be appreciated and perhaps you could explain just how one places such a converter within a DAW environment.
When the conversion is done on the PCI card, the analog audio is analog insice your computer where it picks up noise and hash because of all of the digital signals close to the un-balanced audio.
If you do the conversion somewhere else, then you are away from the noisey environment, and using balanced audio cables which get rid of most of the outside noise.
You are right, the digital audio then goes into the PCI card, but it is now DIGITAL and the noise on the PCI card does not effect the audio that is encoded into the digital signal. The guy that told you that it didn't make a difference should be levied a $5 fine.
If you must do the conversions at the PCI card from analog to digital, make sure that the analog levels are as hot as possible without causing OVERS on the digital meters. This will help some.
The best way to find out if the Apogee PSX-100 will improve things is to rent one or leave a deposit at the dealer and take one home to try.
