St Audio m-port & Egosys

[joemix]

I've noticed that a few places have the St audio m-port in stock now. Does anyone own this interface? How are the mic pres?

Also, it seems like I read a while back that Egosys will be releasing an 8 mic pre interface. Does anyone know anything about it?

Thanks!

[joemix]

Almost forgot... what about the MOTU 896? The 896 has a line/mic switch on each combo jack.. plus I really like the concept of firewire audio interfaces.. does it have low latency?

[This message has been edited by joemix (edited 01-27-2003).]

[Matthew Skinner]

Harmony Central had a write up / release info on the new egosys product. I can now write what i know of it since it was also released to public at the namm show..

egosys in a few months time (not sure of exact release date, could be 8 months for all i know) will be releasing a new card which has 4 firewire connecters on them which each support a 8 in 8 out rack giving the one host card up to 32 in and 32 out capabilities. The racks can support up to 24bit 192khz. I believe its called the "MAXIO". Egosys developed their own chip as no other IC chip can handle that many channels of IO at such high samplerates. The same chip they developed is used in the steinberg vsl2020 card which is already released and selling.

The card wont be too far away but will have a nice high price tag. Much higher than the mport which will still represent high value for money which STA have always tried to provide.

[joemix]

Thanks Matt. Does the m-port have discreet pre-amps? I've ruled out the 896 due to the fact that only 1 input pair can be monitored at a time.

I just read the HC article on the Maxio, and that should be an interesting piece.. According to the article it should be available any time.

[Matthew Skinner]

Yes I would expect the maxio xd to be released somewhere between 1 month to 8 months. I believe the price will be around US$2495 - 2000 ish for one card and one rack. It will be very high end with 192khz AKM converters.

The mport at around US$1295 - $799 and uses high end IC analog chips for the preamps that are higher end than most digital desks by well known brands.

You can see theres a huge difference in price between the two. The difference is quality between the two will only be around 5 - 10% which to some will not be worth the 100% price difference for very similar features.

[This message has been edited by Matthew Skinner (edited 01-28-2003).]

[diminished]

JOEMIX,can you be kind enough to list the m-port sites that are in stock?
i've been looking for the mport and having hard time to find them in stock.or mathew if you know any sites that stock em.
thanks.

[joemix]

diminished, musiciansfriend and cdrecordingsoftware are the only 2 places I know of that have them.

[Matthew Skinner]

Thanks joemix....

If you want to know who stocks the mport then contact Kaysound who are the us importers and distributers for STA...

Kaysound
5 Coton Lane Champlain, New York, USA 12919
Tel.: (514) 633 8877 / Toll Free: (800) 343 0353
Fax: (514) 633 8872
email: guyc@kaysound.com

[diminished]

thanks JOE AND MATHEW.
I KNOW about musicians friend they have been
tricky about the stocking and backorder issue on their site very fishy.but they had it recently in stock and out again.but cd software,i didnt know about them i'll give em a try.
and you know what?musicians friend does advertise a lot about matching prices but dont keep their word,just hot air baloon with some of these venders.even tho i bought a few from them.
anyways,the important thing is about the qualkity of the mport etc.
i am in a making decisions and thinking of may be wait a bit for the new comer soundcards.and may be go for whats best for now.not many of em aimed for complete daw applications,like all in one and keep the chain internal,specialy with mixers in mind.