Behringer ADA8000, first impressions

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 7:43 am

Thought, I would comment about this device. I encouraged myself and bought this 8ch ADAT converter as it was so damn cheap. It's well known fact, that cheap can't be good. Well, I must say I'm impressed about the quality of this converter. It's very quiet. With gain set to -10dB line level I can get -106dB noisefloor (-93dB peak). Thats a huge improvement to my pulsar's own AD converter (-96dB, -84dB peak). Pulsar inputs were always a bit pain in my a**, they are way too sensitive, just picking noise/interference and getting overloaded too easily.
It's too early to comment about the general sound quality between pulsar and ADA8000 AD. At least behringer is quiet. I tested Luna 2496 I/O box and it didn't improve the noise floor noticeably. I hooked a mic directly into ADA8000 and it sounded very dynamic and clean. Not worse than Pulsar AD. I know the jitter is now my problem and I should buy a sync plate. Just at the moment I've been able to test only by setting pulsar as ADAT slave and ADA8000 as master. I tried a big project with this combination and didn't notice any ill side-effects. I need another lightpipe to try pulsar as master.

Anyone else using Behringer ADA8000? What are your opinions?

rhythmaster · Post by **rhythmaster** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:36 am

I use it also! Had no problems so far.
But I use only 2 Inputs so far!

Harry

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:17 pm

much appreciated comment, Stige

just saw a mag's review with the usual 'compared (blindly) to estabished high end converters (they didn't name which) it performed very good, but the highs were a little hard and the low mids a little low.
Exactly what one would expect from a Behringer review

Could you try to verify this in comparison to the 2496 IO-Box ?

cheers, Tom

huffcw · Post by **huffcw** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:58 pm

I also use the ADA8000 with good results.

Also, I would recommend the Behringer MIC100 as a preamp/direct box for guitar (since the ADA8000 doesn't have hi-z inputs). This thing is super cheap, but is very clean and sounds good.

zezappa · Post by **zezappa** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:55 pm

On 2004-02-12 14:58, huffcw wrote:
I would recommend the Behringer MIC100

I also get one and would say useable not only for guitar (and there's the new Mic200 with modulation Fx).

Many people often describes all cheaper devices as sh**t even before to try them.
I wouldn't say behr is top stuff but I also wouldn't mind getting a ddx3216 or the ADA or the Tube1952 i.e. anyway.

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 7:26 am

Hi

I'll test the final opinion of quality between ADA8000 and pulsar AD soon (and eyes closed

). I just finished re-installing windows with APIC/ACPI mode. Thought it's time to take a step forward to the future.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 4:33 pm

Meanwhile I'm wondering if it is worth it to buy one of those really expensive converters, such as made by Apogy.

zezappa · Post by **zezappa** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:06 pm

On 2004-02-13 16:33, braincell wrote:
Meanwhile I'm wondering if it is worth it to buy one of those really expensive converters, such as made by Apogy.

It's not even easy to me getting to a place (in this country) to ear to them but with all my low budget gear/room environment I'm sure they'll make no difference.

I think just looking to all the stuff around it's worth to think about those issues, since earthed main power, PSUs, till plugged cables, noisy neighbours, shouting wives and bad wines!

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:14 pm

it depends: I wouldn't expect an Apogee doing wonders to my DX7, SPX90, TR505, DR110, VZ-8 and finally HardSID quattro - yeah I have a C64 SupaQuartett

Still I could use the regular Pulsar analog in for quality stuff.
Under these conditions a unit like the Behringer makes perfectly sense - to replace a mixer for example.

cheers, Tom

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 6:52 pm

Make sure you have the sync plate though.

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 7:09 pm

Did you install yours yet braincell? Do you hear any difference?

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 7:19 pm

I'm moving and everything is packed. I recently bought the cables though. I'll probably be testing it out within the next month or 2. I also need to buy balanced cables for my new grace design 101 preamp. That's going to make a big difference as well I think.

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:52 am

It's very quiet. With gain set to -10dB line level I can get -106dB noisefloor (-93dB peak). Thats a huge improvement to my pulsar's own AD converter (-96dB, -84dB peak).

That's not surprising because you are comparing convertors which are outside the computer to convertors that are inside the computer. Imagine Pulsar convertors outside the computer? Try comparing to the a16 ultra.
Not trying to dampen your enthusiasm mind

. As far as I know, the ad8000 uses the stock alesis chipset for conversion which is not a bad thing by any standard.
An important consideration on any gear is what sounds ok on a stereo mix might not sound as good when you start adding 24+ channels.

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 7:16 am

On 2004-02-14 06:52, bassdude wrote:
It's very quiet. With gain set to -10dB line level I can get -106dB noisefloor (-93dB peak). Thats a huge improvement to my pulsar's own AD converter (-96dB, -84dB peak).
That's not surprising because you are comparing convertors which are outside the computer to convertors that are inside the computer. Imagine Pulsar convertors outside the computer? Try comparing to the a16 ultra.
Not trying to dampen your enthusiasm mind . As far as I know, the ad8000 uses the stock alesis chipset for conversion which is not a bad thing by any standard.
An important consideration on any gear is what sounds ok on a stereo mix might not sound as good when you start adding 24+ channels.

You are speaking wise words and I agree that there are always better/more expensive convertors. But I tested external Luna I/O box and it gave me axactly same noise floor as Pulsars internal convertors. It didn't improve anything.

I'd like to add another test result I did. I plugged Rode NTK tube mic directly to the ADA8000. Then I plugged it thru the Mindprint Envoice. After comparing results, I must reluctantly admit that I liked more the sound coming directly from Rode/ADA8000. It was clean and dynamic. Mindprind sounded like there was phase errors and generally muffled. I know that Mindprint is a device that adds color to the sound, but this time it didn't add so good color. Though i've been wondering some time, my Mindprint is damaged. Sometimes it just sounds bad

jabney · Post by **jabney** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 1:53 pm

Stige,

Thanks for your review of the bear-ringer ada8000. I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought had you not posted your message.

As for your Mindprint's sound quality, that has a tube, right? Before passing final judgement, try having a qualified electrical engineer (in your particular jurisdiction) substitute a few other tubes. Could make a big difference.

PS. Sorry about having to add the clause about the qualified electrical engineer, but in this day of "no user serviceable parts inside" and hungry lawyers in case you burn the house down, one can't be too careful when giving advice

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 6:31 am

I wouldn't be surpriced, if the ADA8000 gates the input, this way getting a better signal to noise ratio when you feed it with no/almost no signal. It may change, when sound comes thru.

I am quite shure, that the a16u doesn't use gates (and I don't think the old a16 does either).

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:38 am

Ok, I did another test, comparing AD converters between Pulsar II and ADA8000. I used 1KHz sine wave and recorded that at very low level to see the errors they produce. Here is the link for the results:

http://www.sunpoint.net/~simulacrum/

You can see, ADA8000 doesn't use any gating, neither does Pulsar II.

Comments are welcome, as always

Post by **garyb** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 4:30 pm

man,your computer is NOISY.......(electronically)

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 5:48 pm

Thanks for the graphs

How do you find they compare soundvice?

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 7:19 pm

Firstly, I must stress that Pulsar II input is not that bad what it seems to be in the figures I made. It's just too sensitive and picks up all noise and inteference. Also, that was the reason for the distorted figures. For my personal taste Pulsar input it is too sensitive to be fully usable.

The sound.. well. ADA8000 sounds definitely clean. But if somebody said 'hard' top end, I perhaps woundn't disagree. I recorded some guitar tracks with it (using fender twin + shure57 beta) and the sound cuts through the mix very clear way. Sort of I like it.
Pulsar input is more like neutral. Probably due to it's sensitiveness it tends to pick transients easily. I sort of like this too. But really Pulsar AD doesn't raise any thoughts in me, so I'd better describe it just as neutral/natural. Sound quality-wise not bad. Just noisy.

I will be doing my next vocal session with ADA8000 as my MindPrint went broken entirelly

. So after that I'll have a better image of this unit.

garyb: my PC is noisy acoustically too