Topic: Fireface 802 vs UFX ii AD/DA quality?

Hi Im trying to decide between these two interfaces and was wondering if the quality of conversion is the same or is the UFX ii better? I don't need the additional features of the UFX ii and im going to be using outboard preamps so its just the line level AD/DA im bothered about.
Thanks!
Phil

Re: Fireface 802 vs UFX ii AD/DA quality?

Maybe my comparison sheet helps you to find a good decision otherwise consult the RME manuals directly.

https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=30592)

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

3 (edited by ramses 2020-04-28 20:56:59)

Re: Fireface 802 vs UFX ii AD/DA quality?

I personally would prefer the UFX II as it delivers to you
- DURec
- standalone operation via display
- more powerful phones outputs with only 2ohm impedance and higher output level
- 6 standalone user profiles that can be recalled via display, 802 needs the ARC which is not available anymore
- latest MADIface USB driver supporting 32 samples ASIO buffersize, if you are in the need for least latency
- ARC USB connection on the back of the device
- if you should use MIC inputs, better mic inputs with more gain, digital gain control, autoset
- if you should use INSTR inputs, 1M vs 800K impedance

Next thing .. if you need scalability and sustainability of purchase .. get UFX+ to get additionally
- MADI
- USB3 and Thunderbolt (external PCIe)
When working with higher sample rates you loose too many channels with ADAT.
And ADAT is limited to 10-15m.
MADI has 64ch and cables between devices can be 2km long.
And that for only €2xx more.

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

Re: Fireface 802 vs UFX ii AD/DA quality?

Thanks for the info! It seems by the specs that the AD/DA conversion is the same but the UFX ii has better preamps and latency?

Re: Fireface 802 vs UFX ii AD/DA quality?

pmcbride10 wrote:

Thanks for the info! It seems by the specs that the AD/DA conversion is the same but the UFX ii has better preamps and latency?

If you look into the manuals under "Latency and Monitoring" then you can see in the tabular, that the pure converter latency for AD and DA are very low and also the same for both recording interfaces.

Whats different is the circuit around and that the interfaces are using different drivers, where the MADIface driver is the "more modern" driver which allows smaller values for ASIO buffer size (32 vs 48).

But this makes not that big difference. For pure recording this doesn't matter much, its more interesting for people working with VSTi's.

You can see here in the tabular the different round trip times of different RME products as reported by the ASIO driver to the DAW. The 802 is compareable to the values of the old UFX and the UFX II is compareable with the values for UFX+:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.php/Attachment/2343-UFX-UFX-RayDAT-Latencies-v2-jpg/

Another advantage of using the MADIface driver is, that recent new interfaces also use this driver:
Digiface USB, MADIface USB, MADIface Pro, MADIface XT, UFX II/+, ADI-2 Pro/DAC

So you can connect / combine several of these interfaces and access them directly from DAW by loading the ONE ASIO driver. You only need to synchronize the interfaces. The amount of interfaces and channels still depends on the capabilities / performance / DPC latency of your PC as usual.

By this you can i.e. get an UFX II/+ and nicely integrate an ADI-2 Pro into the concept
AND directly access all devices from DAW without having to perform routing on the UFX II towards ADI-2 Pro.
You only need to take care, that the devices are clock synched and use the same ASIO buffersize.

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