Apogee Mini.Me strange behaviours

[lordzoster]

Hallo
i'm testing my Mini.me using it via USB on my laptop with Adobe Audition 1.5.
I have nothing plugged in, no phantom activated.
1) The recording monitor gives me a -87dBFS noise floor with channels activated, and a -90dBFS with channels off.
Isn't it quite high?

2) When tapping onto the Mini.me chassis (i simulate normal bumps during mobile field rec), my taps get recorded.
Once again, is it normal?

[mhibbs]

-90 seems acceptable to me.  I get a higher floor than that going spdif in to my digi soundcard.  Tapping it seems a bit odd...what does it jump to when you tap it?  You aren't going to begin to hear -90db.


mitch

[lordzoster]

yes -90 are quite near the -94 THD+N of the specs, i checked furthermore.
But the taps are a mystery: it increases a 1-2dB, according to the strength of the tap.
Anyway i'm doing more tests: i have a little suspect that the problem is due to my notebook circuitry

[lordzoster]

ok the left channel is in average 3dB higher.
But i have the same difference monitoring the laptop integrated audio.
With the apogee i have that -87 -90 floor, with the audio i have a -46 -49...

tested on different computer: it has the same 3dB difference: nothing changes when i trim the "CAL/LINE" trimmers.
More, the Left channel volume oscillates in a larger range than the right: if i try to pair the peaks of the two channels, the Left remains always jumps more.

[lordzoster]

notebook's fault, using WDM drivers + discrepance of bit depth between MiniMe and the recording software. Using ASIO drivers worked it out perfectly.
BTW now i have rare drops even in monitoring/playback, again crappy notebook - i move to Computer Recording section.