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Title of Equipment: Echo Audiofire 12 Price Paid / Price New: $599/$599 Year Manufactured: 2009 Specs: An analog/digital converter with 12 balanced analog inputs and outputs (TRS), 2 FireWire ports, MIDI I/O, word clock synchronization, and 12 channels of full duplex 24 bit 192kHz recording and playback. Sound: 5/5 Before purchasing this unit I have owned a Presonus Firestudio (~$700) and Lynx Aurora 16 (~$3000) converters. I sold the Lynx a while ago because I couldn't justify that kind of investment for converters, and crossed my fingers that there would be a cheaper but still competitive alternative. Enter the Audiofire. The best way I can describe it is that the Lynx was clean and clear, but it imparted a subtle sweetness to the higher frequencies with some kind of complementary harmonic pixie dust. The Audiofire, on the other hand, doesn't waste time with pixie dust. It's clean and clear (I mean really clear), and totally neutral. You hear exactly what's there and nothing that's not. Equipment Quality: 5/5 The rack case is made of pretty sturdy metal, it seems to run fairly cool, and the front panel LED's light up nicely. Getting it hooked up was pretty much the easiest it could be, and the drivers automatically check for and download updates on start-up. Usefulness: 4/5 It has a wide enough array of sample rates to choose from, MIDI and word clock i/o, and you can select +4dBu or -10dBV nominal level for each individual input and output. It's also expandable by daisy-chaining multiple units via fire-wire. I didn't need any preamps or ADAT connectivity, and the straightforward TRS i/o met my needs perfectly. If you need some pre's or other connections you'd be better served looking at other models. Overall Value: 5/5 Based on the sound alone, I would easily expect this unit to cost 2 or 3x what it does. Priced as it is it's a downright steal.
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Nov 16, 2009 01:23
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 08:32 |
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