W Rudd from Merriam, KS USA
Quality:
First impressions are that this is a bulletproof item.
Features:
This is a solid caompact preamp. I bought it because of the RIAA curve to copy vinyl recordings. (I have Lexington Omega USB interface as well.) However since this has both phono and line inputs, I don't need the other interface. Also, keeping the drivers loaded properly with the Omega was a pain. (Again, thank you Windows.)
Ease of Use:
I had a little trouble at first getting my sound monitoring set up but that was just as much Windows related as anything.
Since Audacity was not immediately intuative, I used Cubase for my first record and sliced it into tracks with Cakewalk PYRO. I then figured out how to go directly into PYRO and that is where I will probably stay.
Sound:
Sound is great and I like the pre / post monitor feature.
Overall:
It has the ART quality I expect.
Do you own this product?:
Yes
Roy P. from Cleveland, OH USA
Quality:
The quality seems pretty good. But, I can't leave the analog and USB outputs hooked up at the same time or I get some noise out of both outputs. I have to use one or the other. Others I've talked to have also had noise issues they had to work around. Noise from a laptop the ART was connected to when using a wall adapter to power the laptop, etc... So, it's not perfect. But, it seems most people can find what it takes to make it run quiet in their setup. Convenience may suffer though... Also, it doesn't seem capable of much output without clipping. Recording levels won't be as high as they could be which causes resolution to suffer a bit.
Features:
The USB output is limited to 16/44.1 or 16/48. If you're looking to record at a higher resolution, look elsewhere.
Ease of Use:
The included software for recording and editing is the freeware "Audacity". A bit confusing and clunky for basic recording and track splitting, but it gets the job done. It's popular software and there's plenty of help available on the web.
Sound:
The sound is beyond excellent for the price. Nice balance and bass weight uncommon even in more expensive "budget audiophile" phono stages. This would be worth buying as a phono stage alone, even if you would rarely use the USB output. I don't know of anything else at this price that sounds as good.
Overall:
I like this product a lot. It does everything it claims to and it does it well
Value:
I would say it's an extremely good value, just due to the sound quality of the phono preamp for the price. The recordings made from the USB output also sound better than the recordings I used to make with my M-Audio "Audiophile" sound card. Richer, more detailed sound with less loss at the frequency extremes.
Do you own this product?:
yes
Date submitted:
10/06/2010