Checking in a bit late on this thread.
Reporting in on the new RME Quadmic Pre:
Keep in mind my perspective is "field" use, as in wind, snow, rain,
and muck.
I have now run the new Quadmic pre through its initial runs.
It is what it is for field use.
If you care about sound quality at 4 channels with few whistles and
bells and want to be under $500, this machine is for you. It was
designed to be a mate to the RME DSP line where you get your displays
and controls elsewhere. It has no headphone jack or internal
battery. Not even an on/off switch.
It's power needs flexible. When power is there it is there. It has
a pile of capacitors so when you plug it in there is an initial
surge. after initial charge it pulls about 5 watts. Power in is
rated at 7 volts to 38 volts DC, 7v to 27 AC. with brick supplied it
can be pluged into any wall outlet in the world.
Tested with Algo test, a free download all of you should already have
if you paid attention to me in the past,
(http://www.algorithmix.com/home/index_downloads4.htm
It does perform well but only exceptional under DC power. Expect
somewhat less if you feed it AC. I found with a poor DC supply from
the junk box I was looking at a hum as loud as -103db. Oh gee.
Under good dc or the supplied brick to a wall outlet it really does
give you 60db gain with a ein of -129db.
That was typed right.
It really does give you 4 channels 60db with a ein of -129db for
under $500.
For controls it has a whooping three led's. Phantom on, limit on,
and -25 db activity. For switches there is 3 in the front and one in
the back. +48volt, Lo cut, Phase reverse. On the back you can switch
between hi and lo line levels to correspond to your equipments line
level. There is one gain knob for each channel.
Overall:
This pre was not designed for field use but it is fairly compact with
one impressive sounding result. No advanced features here but if
what you want is a true pre that can handle 4 channels and not a
headphone amp, MS decode, or lights for level control, this is a
machine for you.
See:
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/micpreamps/quadmic.htm
Rich
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