Beware of Marketing Spin on Cheap Audio Gear

Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 12:12 am

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000387037132/

It pays to test gear thoroughly before being seduced by the spin. I have always boycotted gear by some companies.

Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 3:28 am

Yeah, I had noticed that...(especially after purchasing an outboard converter with 96k capability and finding out I wasn't gonna get more than one stereo input through the SPDIF in's... at 48k).

And I couldn't get a single tech to answer that query to my satisfaction. Bummer how a couple cats are all, "don't worry..we are professionals and we will-uh-negotiate for you..." etc.

Oh, and good luck finding ASIO 2 drivers.

Other than that, it is decent to offer a consolation prize...but they should really just send me $62.50.

Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 7:17 am

Hi David
YES!

I can think of three other devices I've been interested in off the top of my head.

Ten channel I/O 192 kHz, but actually 192 on output only.
8 analog inputs and ADAT -but in reality not at the same time.
96 kHz I/O, but when you get it home it only works at 48 if you want to use in and out at the same time.

I only found out about the limitations when reading reviews.

John

Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 6:34 pm

its that guy again wrote:

Alesis comes to mind. Alesis first brought us
the ADAT's (back in the day). Which I had 3 of those. (one XT and two
blackfaces)
And the Masterlink is a great piece of gear also. The unit list for like
$1799 or something rediculous like.
But really only sells for about $799
A great piece of gear with a "nice" price IMO.
Lastly I would like to add that to my knowledge, Alesis bought Groove Tubes.
And changed the name to GT.
So they are also credited with the new GT brick. Another outstanding unit
with lots of value and a really nice price range.
I will have to get a couple of those bricks!

Judging by some of the stuff I have seen Alesis make I don't think their stuff is very good. It is cheap but not good. The same problems exist in all their equipment it is build for a price point and not for performance.

The same problem applies to a lot of the mid manufactures. They are trying to compete with themselves so they keep making significant cuts in the way the do things just to be able to sell products for a low price.

One company that I think is right on the verge of being "professional" is Presonus. They seem to care about how their equipment is built and they still maintain good pricing but certainly are not cheap.

Motu could be a GREAT company but in order to save a couple of bucks they have cheapened their products but not attaching the connectors to the chassis. If you look at the boxes all the connectors are attached to the circuit card but NOT to the box that protects the circuit card. The more times you plug and unplug the cables the more DAMAGE you do to the circuit card. It can't be more than about 20 cents worth of parts (namely screws) since they already have the chassis and the connectors but they seem to be happy screwing the consumer (pardon the pun)

Lots of other equipment is built poorly and if all you want to do is have a lot of equipment then maybe it is OK but if you want quality equipment you have to spend a few dollars/

MTCW

Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 1:21 am

Regarding the mention of Alesis and Groove Tubes in the comment above: Alesis did purchase the electronics division of Groove Tubes a while back and did use the GT brand. However when they, Alesis, ran into trouble, Aspen Pitman, owner of Groove Tubes, negotiated the return of the label and product line. GT has been made and marketed by Groove Tubes for a number of years since the Alesis meltdown.

Peter.

P.S.
About a year ago, I bought a Masterlink to use for simple 2-ch location recordings when no post is expected or required. Works great.

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