for all the hackers on this board:
What are the chances of a mod that allows true analog bypass on a ua-5? Maybe even removing the a>d and d>a completely?
What, you want to use this as a standalone Preamp? Or do you want to supply analog outputs/patches to others?
Well, I won't be doing any more mods on the UA5 since I've moved on to other stuff (R4, AKG CK6x actives, and other stuff).
My advice would be to get a Presonus Firebox (approx $250 street). This has a firewire interface, it has two mic *and* two line inputs, it outputs mic channels on the back (to use as a standalone pre), and the sound is awesome, much better than any of the modified UA5s IMO.
The only reason to stay with the UA5 is if need standalone operation of ADC, or if you need to run USB on your computer.
Richard
The OPTION of standalone is what I'm after, we have a lot of cameras in the shop with either rca or 1/8th audio inputs. We have some lowkey "gigs" where it would be SO MUCH easier to just run rca outs of the UA-5 into the master camera, and I wouldn't have to do any post synching and drift correction.
I guess I should run some more tests using the ua-5's rca outputs, even if it goes through the a>d/d>a. For a couple shows I ran ua-5 > usb > laptop (24/48) and also ran the rca outs into the jb3 (16/44.1). There was a definite difference between the two, I felt that a non-audiophile could easily distinguish in a blind listening test. However, the jb3 source was still presentable, it was not terrible by any means.
After all, Doug did do a analog output mod on my ua-5 (that was when I didn't know it ran through the a/d), my thinking is that if I could just get true bypass, I'd be set.
The Presonus Firebox looks quite interesting as well. Or maybe I should just sell the ua-5 and get an aerco mp-2, it has rca outs, runs on a 9v, and is much smaller. hmm...