Can Converters Make a Difference?

One of the most crucial pieces of equipment you will need in your home studio would be your recording interface. We gave some insight about what interfaces jobs primarily are in one of our earlier posts. Essentially the job of the interface is to communicate between the analog world and the digital world. The interface allows you to record sound and convert it to a digital medium that your computer can understand. This is done through the A/D (Analog to Digital), D/A (Digital to Analog) converters inside the interface. As the name states the A/D converter converts Analog sound to digital sound into your computer and the D/A converter converts the digital sound in your computer back out into Analog sound via your monitoring system. Now most people would think that these converters would just sound clean and not impact the sound of your recordings very much, but I found out recently that these converters actually make a subtle but noticeable difference in your sound.

            I had the opportunity to test and compare two very great interfaces recently; the Apogee Symphony I/O and AVID’s new HD I/O. Both of these interfaces retail at about $4,000 average depending on the options you purchase the interfaces with. Although both these interfaces have a very high price point these interfaces will allow you to run a full HD system on your computer. I was very surprised to what we found when we were comparing the two interfaces. To test them out we recorded two pieces on a Yamaha grand piano with a Telefunken U47. The first piece we recorded was a slow piece and the second was a more upbeat piece with a lot of dynamic information. When listening to the first track and comparing the two interfaces the AVID HD I/O sounded much clearer and complimented the track very well. We all thought the AVID sounded much better overall until we tested out both the interfaces with the faster, dynamic track we recorded. This time around the AVID interface actually seemed to diminish the sound of the track versus the Apogee. Parts of the track where there was more low end content and the Apogee seemed to even add some warmth to the track overall. Like I mentioned earlier though these differences were subtle but were enough to just sweeten the tracks enough to be pleasing to the ear. Both interfaces work great and have their characteristics that make each one unique and beneficial to your system. When it comes to these two interfaces it is best to look at the specifications of each and see which one will suit your work and situation best!