• Registered: 2021-04-07
  • Posts: 14

Topic: Where to buy a Madiface XT external PCIe card?

Mathias Carstens is showing what I mean in this video:

https://youtu.be/GYQGk8tNFu4?t=128

I can't find these on amazon or anywhere else really, would be grateful for some help (direct link to EU shop would be wonderful).

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-08-05 12:33:58)

  • ramses
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Re: Where to buy a Madiface XT external PCIe card?

The video is from 2013, at which time E-PCIe may have been the interface of the future, but as of today you may have trouble finding computers or interfaces with such a connector. As I understand it, the extension of the PCIe bus out of the computer is Thunderbolt since many years. Alternatively use USB3.

What is the main reason for you to be interested in the MADIface XT ? Is it the three MADI buses? A PCIe card like the HDSPe MADI FX would not be an option for you ?

Note: if you might also need instrument inputs (Hi-Z), the Mic inputs of the MADIface XT can't be switched to Hi-Z, so you'd have to work with a DI box.

If you only need one MADI bus, I would rather recommend you to look for example in the direction of UFX+. This gives you DURec, more analog I/O, two phones outputs, 2xADAT, 2xMIDI, direct USB port for ARC USB, ..

BTW .. in terms of that you didn't find this product in shops:

Thomann can deliver: https://www.thomann.de/de/rme_madiface_xt.htm
Sweetwater can deliver: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail … -interface
Newegg can deliver: https://www.newegg.com/p/0SJ-001T-00096 … klink=true

And .. Amazon is not typically a shop for studio devices. Some popular RME devices you will get there, but not all.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

3 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: Where to buy a Madiface XT external PCIe card?

PCIe extension cards are hard to find these days, the matching Molex cables are no longer manufactured, and the external PCIe to TB interface (Matrox) also vanished years ago. So either you are lucky on the used market, or need to use USB 3.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

4 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-08-05 12:36:30)

  • ramses
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Re: Where to buy a Madiface XT external PCIe card?

Ah he meant the interface card, I thought he is interested in the Madiface XT.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

5 Reply by Potscrubber (edited by Potscrubber 2021-08-17 02:09:02)

  • From: Aotearoa
  • Registered: 2007-10-23
  • Posts: 255

Re: Where to buy a Madiface XT external PCIe card?

There are loads on the second hand market.  Search for Matrox MXO2 (letter O not zero) on ebay or similar, and you will get returned a lot of small Matrox video interfaces (that also use external PCI-E) but also just the Matrox cards and cables we need (both desktop and expresscard).  I just bought another NOS desktop card on ebay I'm planning to put in a Sonnet Echo Express SE I TB3 chassis, and use over TB3 with a new HP ZBook (finally forced to relegate my reliable Lenovo T430 to backup duties). 

I had been planning to use USB3 going forward but cannot get LAB free recordings so far on the HP with Sequoia.  I don't believe it's the XT driver, just USB/Win 10 in general. 

In an ideal world, RME would use it's considerable engineering nous to produce a modern TB 3/4 to external PC-E adapter.  The Madiface XT still stands alone in it's powerful feature set.  Producing the aforementioned dream adapter could only be a fraction of the engineering and manufacturing challenge of something like the XT?   big_smile

I have been forced to use a Merging Hapi on occasion and while the sound is excellent, the control and configuration can only be described as primitive and confusing compared to my venerable XT / Micstasy system.

As usual, I digress...

Madiface XT, Madiface, 3x Micstasy, ADI8QS
Sequoia 17, W10 x64
https://bsound.co.nz/tools-nix