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Behringer ADA8000 Opinions

Wombat

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On a 'Pro' forum(Gearslutz) there is a discussion on the Behringer ADA8000. Lots of opinions saying that it was fine using line-in but not usable for mic.-in due to the poor pre-amps.

Along comes a poster who says there is only one pre-amp and the line input is attenuated into it, shown here:

http://www.gyraf.dk/schematics/Behringer_ada8000_analouge.PDF Note, I verified the input circuitry against the official Behringer schematic.

Can circuit guys tell me where the gremlins, if any, lie in the mic. cct? It looks benign to me.
 
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Blumlein 88

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It is common in many interfaces to have only one pre-amp circuit like that. Common for people to complain about it. Common for them when listening blind to the results not to hear what they claim is a problem. Besides they replaced the 8000 with the ADA8200. That unit has MIDAS preamps and everyone is happy. Now the MIDAS preamp may be different and better, but I bet they still attenuate the line in going thru the same circuit. The endless concern about interfaces that don't have direct input to the AD converter so you can bypass the preamp circuit. It is as bad a concern as jitter on the playback end. Basically I'd say the gremlins are mythical.

You do also have a number of pros tell you those circuits set to unity gain don't color the sound not to worry about them. And used as mic pres they are plenty good too.

They actually did some measurements of the ADA8200 in the latter half of this review at SOS. They mention how it compares with the results of the old ADA8000.
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/behringer-ultragain-ada-8200
 
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Wombat

Wombat

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It is common in many interfaces to have only one pre-amp circuit like that. Common for people to complain about it. Common for them when listening blind to the results not to hear what they claim is a problem. Besides they replaced the 8000 with the ADA8200. That unit has MIDAS preamps and everyone is happy. Now the MIDAS preamp may be different and better, but I bet they still attenuate the line in going thru the same circuit. The endless concern about interfaces that don't have direct input to the AD converter so you can bypass the preamp circuit. It is as bad a concern as jitter on the playback end. Basically I'd say the gremlins are mythical.

You do also have a number of pros tell you those circuits set to unity gain don't color the sound not to worry about them. And used as mic pres they are plenty good too.

They actually did some measurements of the ADA8200 in the latter half of this review at SOS. They mention how it compares with the results of the old ADA8000.
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/behringer-ultragain-ada-8200
 
OP
Wombat

Wombat

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Thank you.

The internet is home to many who are beguiled with stuff they don't understand.
 
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AnalogSteph

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so the ADC is not so good, but what about the DAC?
It's pretty much the definition of It'll get the job done. The ADA8000 is using a bunch of CS4270s, chip specs - DR 105 dB(A), THD+N -95 dB (comparable to a CS4391 of yore). 0 dBFS output is at a nominal +16 dBu. You'll need some amount of flexibility in your speaker setup to accommodate this, the output noise floor would be rather marginal with Genelec 8010As for example (minimum sensitivity 96 dB SPL @ 0 dBu, so 112 dB max or noise not below 7 dB(A) SPL @ 1 m, which would be ~13 dB(A) SPL @ a more typical 0.5 m for these little ones).
 
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