Acousta LE 03 - High end portable interface, HP amp, converter, etc.

[voltronic]

This new Austrian-made interface is one of the most interesting audio products I've seen in a while, and the specs are eye-popping. It's like a DPA d:vice on steroids.

It seems that it uses a technology similar to Stagetec Nexus where each analog input channel has two ADCs, yielding a stunning 160 dB dynamic range. This video gives a brief overview of the input dynamic range:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xQQz4gSoFc

There's way more to this unit including a class D headphone amp and digital I/O. It's not discussed, but the connection diagrams in the manual indicate that it can input and output both AES42 and Dante. (I seriously question the Dante capability because that requires CAT5 or higher Ethernet cable, and the digital connections on this unit are TRS).

https://www.acousta.at/?lang=en

https://www.audiomentor.com/reviews/acousta-le03-review/

[SMsound]

Very interesting product. Don't love the apparently open vents on the side, but otherwise what a nice form factor. 24bit instead of 32 is an interesting choice these days. Also I don't see a standard line out or direct outs to use it as an external preamp. Wonder how it will stack up to something like a Zoom F3. If it has nice pre's then it may be quite interesting. Do they mention a price?

[voltronic]

It costs €1,220 which is expensive for a 2-channel interface, even a pro-quality one, when you consider a RME Babyface Pro FS is $1,000. And you also need XLR-Lemo adapter cables, which Acousta sells for €50 each.

[SMsound]

It costs €1,220 which is expensive for a 2-channel interface, even a pro-quality one, when you consider a RME Babyface Pro FS is $1,000. And you also need XLR-Lemo adapter cables, which Acousta sells for €50 each.

Hmm... That's just a little under the price of a Sonosax M2D2. Pretty aggressive pricing, giving that Sonosax is reputed to have the best pre's and converters in the business.

[voltronic]

It costs €1,220 which is expensive for a 2-channel interface, even a pro-quality one, when you consider a RME Babyface Pro FS is $1,000. And you also need XLR-Lemo adapter cables, which Acousta sells for €50 each.

Hmm... That's just a little under the price of a Sonosax M2D2. Pretty aggressive pricing, giving that Sonosax is reputed to have the best pre's and converters in the business.

Well Sonosax gets to charge what they do because of who they are. That said, I suppose the LE 03 isn't terribly priced. In my post I biiled it as a DPA d:vice on steroids - that unit was over $600, only worked with one specific kind of mic, and had none of the additional functionality this thing does.

[jielkade]

and the Sound Devices USBPre 2 ?

[voltronic]

and the Sound Devices USBPre 2 ?

That's a pretty close comparison.

[breakonthru]

thats impressive if it does what it says. nice find
wins on size alone over the other interfaces. babyface pro is great but this is closer to the size of A10 where the babyface is almost as big as a V3
the best preamp is no preamp and if the ADC has the right input structure to not require gain and hit the numbers shown in their specs its a winner. per our usual 30dB of gain it should* have 120dB of range. in fact with that much dynamic range run your levels at -20dB and forget about it
do they make lemo to lemo cables to run CCMs or CCM1L?

*im skeptical though

the last FPGA-based recorder we saw (SPDR) had DSP and resampled digital inputs and had things like rolloff baked in.
this one certainly uses some sort of DSP or algo to beat physics and create 160dB of dynamic range from an analog input
i wonder if they patented their "full-range-converter-technology" and we can learn more by googling that phrase
review is kinda funny as if the tester thinks that guys vocal sample can demonstrate wide dynamic range
for the average user its cheaper to cannibalize a zoom F3 to a more pocketable case than use this+powerbank+camera adapter+iphone to make a recording. lots of failure points

[grawk]

sorry for the late bump

Has anyone tried this with a microdot converter and dpas?