Maybe put yourself on smth like a waiting list by ordering to the normal price at Thomann?
https://www.thomann.de/de/rme_usb_audio_interfaces.html
> The M-32 Pro Ad or DA are too expensive. But the M1610 Pro has the converters of the M32 Pro - I've read.
> However, the number of inputs and outputs are in fact not the same. But I'll think about that.
Indeed a sad thing. IMHO it would have been better to offer 16/16 even if it costs tad a bit more.
But then you would have had no limitation in terms of use cases.
If somebody wants to connect 8 stereo devices (Reverbs, Compressors, EQs and what not), then you need an equal number of I/O on inputs and outputs.
Also nice would have been another option: M32-Pro, as AD/DA converter with 16 I/O IN and OUT. I personally liked the idea very much to have a display for each port which can be labeled and which is also easily visible from distance.
to 1) sorry I can't tell, I would simply check 1st of all the technical specs, whether it matches your expectations in terms of SNR and THD. Also important a certain flexibility to have different reference levels that perhaps also can be set on a per port basis. You need to do the "dirty excel job" and compare.
to 2) everybody is very satisfied about the unit having a transparent sound with much detail. I would check it out yourself. Everybody has different rooms, active monitors, ears, listening habits, etc. And I would definitively get it for getting some features. Auto reflevel and all the protection features (detection of AC current, slow rampup of volume, ...) and switchable D/A filter and some more. Can also act as monitor controller to protect ears and monitors in case you accidently bring output faders to 0dB in TM FX. But you can (or should) also use attenuators for this purpose when you have level mismatches, see also this excellent sticky from MC: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=25399. I am using these: https://www.thomann.de/de/jts_ma_123.htm
to 3) 3 MADI busses are not bad, but this device has a different feature set. No instr inputs, no DURec.
TB as 2nd choice I would also prefer over E-PCIe which is a well but quite uncommon connection method. Not sure whether you can get expansion cards for your PC and then you mentioned your PC has no free slots anymore ....
The only clear advantage is: 3 MADI busses ... and if you choose E-PCIe then you have the resource optimizing driver which allocates only driver resources for groups of 8 I/O channels if at least one channel of such a group of 8 is active for audio (not 100% sure whether this means allocated/mapped in the DAW or whether audio needs to go through).
You're welcome.
The ADI-2 Pro FS R BE is really extremely nice, tbh I couldn't live without it.
See this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doHG32aXBDY
Compared against devices which are in the price range up to €8000 and for A/D only... D/A can't be worse
I use actually two of them, one for recording, one in front of a high end HiFi.
My recommendation to you: check it out.
Also so useful features like bit test to ensure end-to-end lossless audio transport.
BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13