Topic: Soon-to-be RME owner seeks purchase advice

Hi folks

First, a small introduction as background, since this is my first post.

I will be purchasing an RME interface within the next week. Which one is not yet decided.

I recently upgraded my 10-year-old recording PC to newest-generation stuff (Z270 MB, I7-7700, SSD, etc). I use 2 Presonus Firepods, and had some issues getting them working with the new hardware, but finally succeeded. However, the newer, much faster hardware has revealed a few issues with my 10-year-old Pods. So, I have decided to finally replace them with something current.

My Nr. 1 priority, after my experience with PreSonus, is support. PreSonus dropped support for the Firepod almost immediately after they stopped production. They provided one last driver for Win7 and that was it. It isn't difficult to get that driver working under Win10, but this lack of support burned me and I swore I would never buy another product from them.

So I investigated the current crop of interfaces, and settled on RME and UA as the two companies that provide excellent support, and in the end decided on RME.

Now, I am a hobbyist, and record mostly by myself (max 2 mics at a time) but also record my acoustic trio (3 mics, 2 line ins).
So I have limited need for mic pres, 2 would be fine, as I have a couple of standalone pres, but 4 would be more convenient. I record quite a bit of acoustic guitar and vocals, and am fussy about the sound (especially of the acoustic guitar, normally a very fine Martin OM) so the quality of the preamps is important. This is one reason why I rejected Focusrite; the preamps sound harsh to my ear.

In any case, I have three choices, given my needs and budget:

1) RME UCX
       advantages: apparently slightly better preamps (micstatsy vs octopre?) but will I ever really notice it?
                           

2) FF 802
        advantages: 4 mic pres, more i/o, 2 ADAT, newer converters (again, will I really notice?)
        disadvantages: costs more

3) RayDat
       advantages: free from firewire or usb considerations, very fast. Cheapest of the three (but .. must buy mic preamps)
                            4 adat i/o (but: will I ever need that? I think not. )
       disadvantages: obviously no mic pres, have to buy an ADAT-capable pre (or converter with the pres that I have), which,
                             if I buy a pre of quality comparable to the interface actually makes this the most expensive (but also
                             most flexible) solution.

I'm assuming that all three of them sound excellent (I have borrowed and tested a UFX to get a feel for the RME pres and quality), and that RME will not suddenly change their excellent support. So I don't think I can go wrong regardless.

Typing this out and reading through it, I tend towards the 802, simply for the convenience of having 4 pres. Have I missed anything important? Anybody willing to give me advice?

thx

steven

Re: Soon-to-be RME owner seeks purchase advice

UCX, 802, UFX, UFX II, UFX+ are all very nice products.

I would get UFX, better UFX II. as these recording interfaces fulfill all demands and you have headroom and options for the future. If you need small form factor get UCX.

I would prefer the newer products like the UFX II, as they have been just released and by this you get most value for the money as these devices use latest technology in terms of converters etc.

To get information about what changes between UFX and UFX II/+ look at this article (the UFX II is the UFX+ without MADI and USB3): http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … 8-RME-UFX/

Other articles of interest:

See excel where you can compare the different devices: http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … B-MADIfac/

TotalMix primer and Videos:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … teps-DE-E/
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … al-Videos/

Also a nice combination but adds a little complexity. At the end I found out that RMEs USB/FW driver are so well, that its not really a must to use PCIe based cards:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … ME-RayDAT/

What you can do with the Flagship interface UFX+, but I think Madi is too much, you dont need it:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … Cber-MADI/

Shall you play also electric guitar, then this article could also be of interest:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … arren-Rig/

Also interesting this combination, shall you have the wish for an excellent Headphone Preamp, USB DAC, etc
Then you combine it nicely with a RayDAT but then still require external preamp via ADAT:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … ort-DE-EN/

Information about the ADI-2 Pro alone here:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … C3%A4rker/

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Soon-to-be RME owner seeks purchase advice

Thanks for the info, on that basis I will go with a UCX. The UFX and UFXII are out-of-budget; the 802 is the absolute maximum for me.

steven

Re: Soon-to-be RME owner seeks purchase advice

You should take perhaps a closer look at UCX and 802, as there are some differencies with these 2 products.
The price difference is not that high, so pls take a closer look:

http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.php … 017-01-pdf

UCX vs 802:
- UCX: €1199. 802: €1499. Delta: only €300
- UCX + 802: USB2/FW400. 802 offers 2nd FW port for FW800 cable (but its still FW400).
- 36 vs 60 channels
- UCX: Micstasy/UFX preamp technology (no parallel conversion), 802: Octamic II preamp technology
- Wandler Verzögerungen AD/DA: 14/7 vs 12/7
- Micro Preamps: 2 vs 4
- "        " SNR: 113 vs 116 dBA
- THD Line IN/OUT: -105/-100 vs -110/-110dB
- SNR Line IN/OUT: 113/113 vs 116/118 dBA
- AES IN/OUT: 0/0 vs 2/2 channels (2 mono channels = stereo)
- SPDIF coaxial: 2/2 vs 0/0 channels (2 mono ch = stereo)
- HiZ (Instr): 2 vs 4
- MIDI: 2 vs 1
- MIDI via breakout cable: yes vs no
- Phones Outputs: 1 vs 2
- "        SNR: 113 vs 118 dBA
- "        Impedance: 30 vs 24 Ohm
- Digital Gain Control: yes vs no
           (you like to be able to store gain settings in TotalMix Snapshots or prefer analog knobs ?)
- Autoset: yes vs no
           (automatically reduces gain if signal is too high and would cause distortion/clipping)
- Standalone Profiles: 6 vs 6
- Are profiles recallable at device without PC ?   yes vs requires the old ARC which is not being sold anymore
- PSU: external vs built-in
- Dampening of power-on click: phones only vs. all channels
- Rack mounts: optional available vs not required (19")
- Can be used with ARC USB: yes vs yes

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Soon-to-be RME owner seeks purchase advice

So I picked up the 802 today. What a swell device.

Re: Soon-to-be RME owner seeks purchase advice

Good choice wink Enjoy !

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13