It's true the Digi stuff is way overpriced. But they have the market cornered because it's the standard and boy are they taking advantage of it!
That's the way the pro marketplace work's I suppose.
We didn't do a formal shootout ie it wasn't totally blind. But we did parallel out our listening tests to each of the converts and a/b/c/d between them. It was quite an eye opener.
Depending on how you look at it, the Behringers are a bargain or the 192's are a complete rip off! I suppose both is true in reality.
It's not always wise to work at the highest sample rate a system gives as it leaves no leeway to push your system creatively; albeit at the expense of that last 1% of sonic perfection. Driving PT to the max all the time can really be a somewhat hair raising experience. And, in my experience, plenty of the bigger US studios work at 44.1/48 - even with 192 capability - for that very reason on a lot of "pop" projects. Even the Nashville perfectionists often plump for stability & safety rather than persue that last 1% that 99.9% of listeners can't hear on their shitty iPods.
Anyways, back to the topic in hand. Googling hasn't revealed any other smaller-than-1u-rack size lightpipe ADC units. I would have expected there to be some niche audiophile designs out there?
ac
That's cool man. Here in the states we record everything at this highest sample rate the system can handle. You know, for better wave smootheness and top end air that you can't achieve with a 44.1 rate. Very true that everyone uses the Pro Tools HD stuff nowadays but that doesn't mean it's the boss hog at all, it just works really good with Pro Tools. All of the Digidesign gear is kinda BS compared to similarly priced gear from other manufacturers but Digi make you buy it for their software to work so they kinda have us all by the scrote.
So when doing your shootout did you use a single source multed to both converters and then blind A/B on the monitors or what?