I am going to make your choice so much easier right now ![big_smile](https://forum.rme-audio.de/img/smilies/big_smile.png)
I just bought RME DSPE Raydat, and I will tell you my view on it, this might actually complicate your question, but it might also clarify A LOT of stuff. With my personal experience.
You are doing a side-grade, not upgrade or downgrade.
I am currently 3 days in after purchasing RME DSPe Raydat
I needed to use my old Saffire Pro 40 as a speaker driver (as a speaker amp essentially) with ability to use pre-amps and route the signal back to RME DSPe Raydat PCIE card. I really like Saffire Pro 40 for it's bass response and power of midrange. Albeit highs are subdued, which I like for my ears. Gives the sound very tape like saturation quality with my Yamaha MSP5s (arguably better for listening than most newer Yamaha speakers like HS5 or HS7), but I digress...
I also had bad clocking issues, because as most know that Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 is Firewire, so I was like:
"Well, let me clock to PCIE card, and also not get rid of Saffire Pro 40", I refused to buy Babyface, because it looked like spaghetti monster with side mounted cables. Not my cup of tea.
I tried 2 variants of my set up:
1. I ran ADAT out and ADAT in from RME to Saffire Pro 40, that was then master clocked to RME Raydat. At first I couldn't have a proper clock and I kept getting pops and clicks. But due to some hardware updates I had to reinstall Windows 11 and issue disappeared. As I could not clock to Internal clock of RME, while feeding ADATs into Saffire. Now I can.
That result does alter a sound to a noticeable level. Lows are not as deep, midrange is not as full (as Saffire acts as a speaker driver now), but overall sound is more clear on all spectrums.
They say RME does not color the sound, but I disagree, it has to go through RME's converters and chips still, so it does change sound, I clearly hear it. I am comparing Pepsi to Coke here, and I can definitely tell how Pepsi tastes like, and I know how Coke tastes. I honestly prefer Pepsi ![big_smile](https://forum.rme-audio.de/img/smilies/big_smile.png)
What is Pepsi here? Ah, who knows!
a) Because when I listen to low end frequencies and want the best midrange fullness, I get the best sound design with plainly plugging Saffire Pro 40 through Firewire into a Firewire PCIe card.
b) When I want clean sound, RME HDSPe DEFINITELY takes the cake, but I hear transients are sharper with it, and midrange is not as rich, lows are not as bassy and lush.
In my case you have another stage that is affecting sound: DA converters of the Saffire Pro 40, they change the sound before it hits the speakers, running ADAT in from RME to Saffire, and sound now coming out of Main Outs of Saffire.
Before someone says that cannot be, it can be, as even running SPDIF digital output from SSL Alpha Channel preamp to digital input makes the sound clean but very cold, compared to running Analogue of SSL Channel into Saffire and having it convert there and come out through Firewire into the Cubase 5.
I like the lush sounds of Saffire AD conversion, but it has those low end and midrange qualities.
2. Running DSPe by itself as a master, and having Saffire Pro 40 as secondary device makes the sound clean and very good, but arguably not better than Saffire 40, though muddiness is gone when using DSPe.
3. Third way I was able to clock my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 with almost no drop outs was to have my Gigabyte Aorus Master Z690 motherboard Optical SPDIF run into ADAT of Saffire Pro 40, then clocking to Optical SPDIF with Saffire Pro 40 to motherboard. This motherboard in particular has ESS SABRE Hi-Fi 9118 DAC chip, which is used on many top end interface units in Pro Audio, according to research.
So, in my case it is the closest sound I can get to my Saffire Pro 40 with zero drop outs (but I must keep firewire cable plugged in while Master is my Optical SPDIF of the motherboard), but I ran HDSPe with Saffire 40 to compare.
It's 3 types of flavors
Neither wins in everything.
Here is my answer in Layman's terms (Pros and Cons)
RME HDSPe
Pros (by experience):
1. Incredible latency: 0.688 ms Input, 1.365 ms Output, in Cubase 5, 96khz 24 bit. Hard to beat by anyone.
2. Clean sound, tight transients, albeit a bit cold in comparison to some units. Not muddy.
3. Powerful clock
4. Low jitter
5. TotalMix routing
6. ADAT for days! To connect ADAT gear. You can also run ADAT out to DAC units and get your sound even better than most audio interfaces.
7. Expansion card that comes with it, for another ADAT expansion.
8. Stable drivers
9. Way more inputs than Babyface
Cons:
1. You don't have pre-amps
2. Set up may present some issues if you have some driver issue in the system or have not updated firmware. Make sure you do this first.
3. NO EQ in TotalMix
4. No TRS line in
5. No speaker knob to control volume, must have a speaker amp, another interface such as mine, or mixer to drive speaker volume (if you like analogue volume adjustments)
Baby Face
Pros (by theory)
1. EQ available in TotalMix, can hone your speaker to the sound you like
2. Stable drivers.
3. 2 Pre-amps
4. Screen with speaker volume dial.
Cons:
1. Less Inputs/Outputs than HDSPe
2. Cannot compete with HDSPe's latency, because it is USB
3. Spaghetti wires out of the sides of the unit, don't like that at all. Some don't mind.
The box is small, so connectivity from the back only was not possible
I don't like Babyface for the way wires are routed. It will be a mess on my desk.
You need to watch this review on Babyface:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i5iS1ULI6Y
When I typed out this narrative, it has also made me trully consider HDSPe AIO Pro as a swap option between Raydat and UCX II that I am considering.
Long answer, but I doubt anyone will type out so much to tell you about this.
It's so hard to get answers on forums these days.
This is my 2nd post on the forum., and I hope that helps you out :-)