Topic: UA5 vs. M-Audio Duo vs. M-Audio Firewire 410

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

I use the Oade Digi-Mod UA5.  I've heard it offers better performance than the Duo, as well as runs on DC so you can use batteries (Duo is AC).

Yesterday I saw the Firewire 410 at Guitar Center, and damned, if it don't look tempting!!!

So I ask, has anyone/used one???  Will it (and the Duo), require mods for standalone use like the UA5???

And is it possible to run the 410 in the field w/o USB power???

Just curious,

Terry

[zowie]

FW 410 needs mods to use without a computer, and no one seems to have figured them out yet, if they are possible.

The Duo needs no mods for stand alone use, and IMO it has better pre's than the UA-5.  However it needs AC so is complex and expensive to power.

[greenone]

The Duo can be used in the field with a power supply that Core Sound makes. However, I think you have to buy it from them directly as a whole package; they don't sell the power setup separately.

http://www.core-sound.com/duo.html

They do a comparison of the UA-5, the Duo, the Mini-Me and Sound Devices' USBPre (feature sets only, not sound) here:

http://www.core-sound.com/ua5-duo-usbpre-comparison.html

Not all that helpful for a Duo-FW410 comparison, but it's a start.

John Kelly from this board uses the FW410 and records to an iBook. I seem to remember him saying that he was pestering Doug Oade to start offering a standalone mod to it but no luck thus far...

[chase]

i dunno if the Duo has better pre's than the UA-5.  i think core-sound charges ~$180 for the battery pack that lasts 4 hours.  i found a portable battery pack/power invertor at target in the camping supplies for $20/$40, can't remember, might have been onsale one time.  i think this could run the Duo for ~6 hours.  now the problem that len over at core-sound stated was that other power invertors would cause the noise in the preamps to rise and that he had figured out how to avoid this in his design.  i never heard any rise in noise using the power pack from target though.  one thing to keep in mind though is that the noise will be increased no matter what you do, even with the core-sound pack, it is an inevitable side affect of converting DC>AC.

[John Kelly]

John Kelly from this board uses the FW410 and records to an iBook. I seem to remember him saying that he was pestering Doug Oade to start offering a standalone mod to it but no luck thus far...

I do run it, and I love it.  However, I have no plans to pester Doug about a standalone mod.  I recommended that other people may want to, but I have no need for such a mod.

[zowie]

I wrote to M-Audio's dev. people a couple months ago to recommend they implement this in the future.

[bush]

I ran the duo for a while , used a convertor, when battery power went low, noise was introduced.

2-3 hours on a 12v was not worth it to me.

I also didnt think the pres were as good as the ua-5, really loose sounding to me...YMMV

i ran it with rode nt-5 then oktava mc-012

bush

[nic]

"when battery power went low, noise was introduced. "

for what its worth, the same applies to the Benchmark AD2K+