So... I was about 99% sure I wanted a USBPre 2, based on the feature set and what I had heard from Sound Devices in the past. (I even had an ISO post in the yard sale)
Then I started poking around and actually
listening to some recordings on the LMA. I listened to Brian Hadella's Sonosax/USBPre2 comparisons, and I listened to everything else I could find where the preamps on the USBPre v2 were actually being used (there really aren't that many recordings out there yet, by the way).
My conclusion is that I am thoroughly unimpressed with the USBPre 2, or at least the preamp section of it. Listen to Brian's 3 shows he recorded with both the Sonosax & SD > R-44 (links posted below). I was really surprised at how much more "musical" and realistic the Sonosax recordings were and how much more impact they have, and how flat and sterile and lifeless the USBPre recordings were in comparison. And that's with DPA 4022s!! (frankly, if a preamp can't play nice with DPAs, you've gotta wonder if it's worth having). None of the other stuff on the LMA sounds much better. I listened with 2 different playback systems and 2 sets of headphones... same thing.
Is this a subjective thing where it's just me, or are the pre's in this unit really that bad? Can anyone point me to a recording or 2 made with the USB Pre 2 that they really like? I'd be very interested in hearing it. Like I said, I really wanted to like this unit, because feature wise it has everything I'm looking for. I just want to hear
one recording that really knocks my socks off and shows me that this thing has the potential.
Anyway, then I saw the 2 Mini-Mes in the YS and started to think "why not a Mini-Me? What can the SD do that the MiniMe can't?" I started going back and listening to Mini-Me recordings and had the exact opposite reaction - I liked almost all of them! Yes the technology is 10 years old or whatever, but with the firewire or USB card it basically meets my needs as a computer interface for mastering, and supposedly has a nice headphone amp (can anyone confirm this? I need a high current amp to drive my AKG K240DF's).
So I'm wondering... am I missing something? Is there something that gives the SD unit a distinct advantage that I'm just not seeing? (other than the pretty lights, of course)
Here's what I'm looking for:
(1) A quality preamp/ AD converter all-in-one - to go Mics > Pre/AD > Tascam DR100MK2 for a second rig, or to use on 2 channels into the Oade R44 for some extra flavor
(2) USB (or Firewire) interface for mastering - to go digital out from computer > Yamaha receiver > monitors (if it could pass multichannel audio files through to the surround decoder on the receiver, that would be a big plus)
(3) High quality, high power headphone amp
(4) ability to use for webcasting (digital stream to computer for encoding with simultaneous digital out via SPDIF)...
by the way - I have a USBPre v1.5 that I bought for functions 2, 3, and 4... I'm not even going to get into my issues with that unit... (I almost titled this thread "Has Sound Devices jumped the shark?")
Thoughts?
Oh yeah - you can hear Brian H's comparisons here:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=143118.msg1845070#msg1845070Thanks Brian!