[tseliottt]

Professional engineers and music producers always throw around names like RME, Echo, and Apogee when talking about converters or DACs. While on Head-Fi, much of discussion is around small niche companies like Audio-GD, Schiit, and Burson.
 
Why is it that these interfaces and converters are rarely discussed? Even the mid tier options like the Focusrite Forte are praised for having converters with close to mastering level sound quality. So why are they less favored here versus small companies that real professionals rarely ever mention? I'm in the process of upgrading my converter and I'm curious why these "audiophile" DACs are preferred when they have less functionality, usually cost just as much if not more, and the "pro" gear already offers close to perfect SQ.

 

[khaine1711]

One reason is that they are usually focused on the A->D side (recording), rather than the D->A side (playback). 
 
And it's not that "close to perfect" as you think. For example, Lynx admits that the Hilo is aimed (partly) at audiophile, and has better playback capabilities than their more expensive Aurora. Don't assume that just because it's for pro audio, it has "perfect" SQ - the same could be said for "audiophile" gear.
 
Also plenty of pro audio companies offer good Dac, usually not cheap though (Briscati M1, Weiss 202 and Medea, Forsell MDac, Burl B2, Larvy Gold). 

 

[leeperry]

excellent clocking, poor output stages? there's quite a diff between mastering gear and hifi-gear as the former is meant to make the defects as audible as possible when OTOH the latter is supposed to be more forgiving for people who just want to hear music

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

Good Question. I also think it is strange.
 
Especially when you consider that many hi-fi types are now prepared to buy active studio monitors like ADAM and KRK but baulk at getting the interfaces they are designed to be paired with.

 

[StudioSound]

Well for one thing, many "professional" DACs don't even have a headphone output on them.
They're often built to be rackmounted, so they're relatively huge.
A lot of them run hot, and even have a fan inside them.
And they often don't integrate well with home setups - loud noises when you power them on, restart the system they are connected to etc.

And with "Pro Grade" equipment you are not necessarily paying for better performance - you're paying for a more rugged build quality, pro-oriented features/connectivity, certified performance with strict tolerances, and reliability when used for extended periods of time.

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

^^ @ post # 5.
 
I think you and the OP are talking about different products. Pro audio manufacturers make a range of devices called format converters which are a little like what you are talking about. What the OP means is a slightly different product which are normally known as audio interfaces.
 
These will all have highly capable headphone outputs, might be rack mountable but in a half rack size, don't run hot (why would they?) so don't need fans at all. I own three myself so I can confirm they don't make 'loud noise when you turn them on and off. Nothing wrong with rugged construction and durability either.
 
Look at the pictures here.
 
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_babyface.php
 
http://apogeedigital.com/products/duet2.php
 
http://echoaudio.com/products/echo-2#tech-specs-tab
 
http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/ultralite-mk3/body.html
 
http://uk.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/scarlett-2i4
 
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/traktor/dj-audio-interfaces/traktor-audio-2/

 

[StudioSound]

You’re right, we are clearly talking about different things.
Those look like professional manufacturers branching out into prosumer/DJ markets, not pro gear.

This is the sort of thing I think of when I hear "pro gear" mentioned:
http://www.lynxstudio.com/product_detail.asp?i=1

 

[Theogenes]

There are actually a fair number of posts and threads where people jump over to the pro-audio side for gear in an audiophile system; it seems you just have to look for a specific model (i.e., RME Babyface) instead of a category description (pro audio, etc). While there isn't a ton of crossover, there are some users around. Based on my wholly non-scientific random sampling of reviews on the two categories, it seems that while the lower-end pro gear (Motu, RME, etc) can be pretty easily bested in SQ by comparable non-professional units, the really high-end stuff (Weiss, Lavry arguably, Forsell, see Khaine's post) is typically pretty well regarded. 
 
I think another reason there isn't as much chatter on the consumer side is the increased complexity of working with some of the devices and the resultant increased likelihood of potentially damaging one's ears or gears with a pro-audio output into a consumer device. On the Lynx Hilo thread here (which I follow religiously, as I'm saving up for a Hilo personally), there was a forum member who inadvertently damaged a pair of HiFiMan headphones due to a higher-than-normal (for consumers) output level. Audiophiles with varying levels of "techno-complexity technostress" (which I actually did not just make up, believe it or not) can look at the multitude of buttons, modes, connectivity options, etc and decide that there's something particularly noble in the hair-shirt aesthetic of a black box with an absolute minimum of options. A lot of pro-audio gear just looks like it should ship with a bottle of aspirin, and people are understandably averse to that. 
 
JM2C, ofc. 

 

[redquilang]

Quote:

Good Question. I also think it is strange.
 
Especially when you consider that many hi-fi types are now prepared to buy active studio monitors like ADAM and KRK but baulk at getting the interfaces they are designed to be paired with.

I agree with you, I bought the $900 Schiit Gungnir and got rid of it when I realized the current interface I have was just as good if not better than the Schiit, in addition to being much cheaper.

 

[Theogenes]

I agree with you, I bought the $900 Schiit Gungnir and got rid of it when I realized the current interface I have was just as good if not better than the Schiit, in addition to being much cheaper.

May I ask what interface you use? Just curious.

 

[redquilang]

mr816. The gungnir wasn't bad, I just couldn't hear too much of a difference so mybe my ears are bad lol.

 

[Theogenes]

Gotcha. Thanks for the response!!