Topic: USBpre or laptop mic input?

[scervin]

Was in the game for a long time, but DAT only.  I'm not looking to record shows, I just want to have a way to get the signal into TrueRTA.

Looking into getting freq. response in rooms to help with calibration and room treatment.  Do you think going USB in with the M-Audio USBpre give a significant difference over say a 48V phantom power supply using the mic input on the front of the laptop?

thanks
SC

[Chanher]

yes. A laptop is a very compact machine, and it's analog inputs will be quite noisy. If you record very loud sources, you might not hear the noise, but there is a good chance you will brickwall. quiet sources will reveal that internal noise.

so a usbpre will sound better than the laptop.

[BC]

USBPre for sure.

[rowjimmy]

USBPre for sure.

No question, whatsoever.

[Jamos]

Do you think going USB in with the M-Audio USBpre give a significant difference over say a 48V phantom power supply using the mic input on the front of the laptop?

thanks
SC

The USBPre is ideal for your use...I'd say most folks that use one, use it for the purpose of RTA.  They are tanks...oh, and are built by Sound Devices, not M-Audio. 

If M-Audio built them, they would be made from plastic.
 

[rowjimmy]

Do you think going USB in with the M-Audio USBpre give a significant difference over say a 48V phantom power supply using the mic input on the front of the laptop?

thanks
SC

The USBPre is ideal for your use...I'd say most folks that use one, use it for the purpose of RTA.  The are tanks...oh, and are built by Sound Devices, not M-Audio. 

If M-Audio built them, they would be made from plastic.
 

And they'd cost half as much and be half as good.

[dnsacks]

all that said -- for your purposes (room calibration, etc.), you could do just fine with a used un-modded edirol ua5, which will feed a laptop a digital signal via usb and provides p48/gain to mics and has an integrated adc.  Unmodded ua5s should be available for a lot less than a usbpre

[Jamos]

all that said -- for your purposes (room calibration, etc.), you could do just fine with a used un-modded edirol ua5, which will feed a laptop a digital signal via usb and provides p48/gain to mics and has an integrated adc.  Unmodded ua5s should be available for a lot less than a usbpre

very true...probably could be found for about half the price.
I'm not a huge UA-5 fan, but it would work just fine for this...

[dnsacks]

the ua5 does resample its digital inputs, but I don't think that's pertinent for the initial requestor's intended use (getting an analog mic input into a laptop to monitor room acoustics.