This years marks 15 that I've been doing music. Either as a artist, producer, or engineer. In the past decade I've got to use and hear many different pieces of gear. Last week I purchased an Antelope Orion 32. After being impressed by the d/a conversion I got to thinking..... When was the last time I heard a "bad" d/a converter? By bad I mean unpleasing to the ear. I feel that d/a converters in my opinion (like mics and mic pres) have very subtle differences once you reach a certain quality. Of course some d/a converters sound better than others, but all of the ones I've heard from low budget interfaces to high end converters hasn't been a mile difference between them. My first interface was a m-audio delta 1010LT. I'd love to hear how it compares to converters today. How much of a difference would I hear?
Over the years I've been impressed by d/a converters on inexpensive products. My cousin brought over his silver avid mbox and I remember thinking wow, this sounds pretty good. M-audio interfaces has been sub par in the past to me, but the converters on the profire 2626 sounded really good. Even my $300 monitor station V2 from Presonus has a damn good d/a in it for the money. Though it doesn't sound as good as my lynx Aurora (it is close though!) I would be perfectly fine doing a mix on it. Don't get me wrong, d/a is important, (if it wasn't I wouldn't of bought an Orion 32) but I think d/a converters have came to a point where they all sound good enough to work on. With being said I ask..... Are there any d/a converters that sound bad?
Over the years I've been impressed by d/a converters on inexpensive products. My cousin brought over his silver avid mbox and I remember thinking wow, this sounds pretty good. M-audio interfaces has been sub par in the past to me, but the converters on the profire 2626 sounded really good. Even my $300 monitor station V2 from Presonus has a damn good d/a in it for the money. Though it doesn't sound as good as my lynx Aurora (it is close though!) I would be perfectly fine doing a mix on it. Don't get me wrong, d/a is important, (if it wasn't I wouldn't of bought an Orion 32) but I think d/a converters have came to a point where they all sound good enough to work on. With being said I ask..... Are there any d/a converters that sound bad?