Hi

This is my first post here although I'm a long time user of RME digital interfaces. I started with the Hammerfall 9652 aprox 12 years ago (migrated from protools) then upgraded to HDSP DIGIFACE  when it became available. I love them, they are stable and work great.

One of the things I'm not happy about (and this is not related to RME but the whole industry) is the fact that there is no simple digital AES-EBU only interface for mobile recording. I'm thinking about two products:

-One would be a simple stereo in, stereo out in AES-EBU format up to 24 bit 96 or 192khz (USB2, Firewire) with no AD or DA converters, no headphone monitoring no preamps etc. Just a simple AES in and AES out for our laptops. This would be useful for direct to stereo mobile recording, with an external AD/DA converter, or for mastering as a stereo playback machine with a highend DA to stereo analog processing, or as a stereo mastering recorder of the analog processed signal with a highend AD. The main idea is to facilitate the use of our highend converters (in a mobile context) in a simple way without additional not needed (and expensive) features and complications .

-Another product would be a similar (USB2, Firewire) interface for laptops but with multiple AES-EBU ins and outs (8stereo in - 8stereo out, or 16stereo in - 16stereo out). The same idea, to make possible the use of external highend AD/DA converters in mobile multitrack situation.

It really puzzles me that there is no such  product available. In PCI world there are the HDSP AES32, or the LYNX AES16 but in laptop world there is no similar product. I really hope I'm not the only in need for this kind of interface and also hope that at some point this kind of interface will become reality.

Thank you and keep up the good work

chrissugar

P.S. I am aware about the possibility to buy a Magma or similar PCI expansion box and use the HDSP AES32 but this is not a universal and optimal solution. Not many computers have PCMCIA or EXPRESS CARD. Also I know that the HDSP DIGIFACE can be used with laptops and have a pair of SPDIF in/out. Unfortunately it is the same problem, and I also find a waste of resources to use an interface like this only for the stereo SPDIF in/out. I am also aware about the defunct TC Electronic Digital Konnekt 32. It is not the solution.