[geezer]

I like working AES as well, but it is definitely more expensive. I currently have 3 of the MY16 ADAT cards, one of the 96k SRC AES cards (not so impressed with the SRC so far, by the way) and a couple of other cheapo 8 channel cards....Glad to see that the double-wire AES cards are now available.....I am slowly abandoning TDIF.

The dilemmas I see are: 1) I am planning for working at 96K all-digital soon, and some of the patching and interface issues are still a little confusing (this, by the way, is another reason to have those converters on your hard disk recorders) 2)Have to decide on a new digital electronic patch bay. The 2 contenders seem to be Z-Sys, which has the big rep, and Friend-Chip, which seems to cost less and still seems to have the quality. There are some very inexpensive light pipe options out there now.....I am curious about anyone else's recommendations....You have to make sure that whatever you get can handle 96k in the way that want to (double wire or double speed) without any problems.

How does Krystal like the DM2000? Fine, as far as I can tell. If you have a MicroSync card in play, you can sync to video from the Nanosyncs and it will be relating to the wordclock. Otherwise, you have to run it independently and it will sync to incoming digital.....As I related in the other thread, I have found that a 24bit project (at 44.1, obviously) turned into a CD in MicroCD sounds significantly better than supposedly high quality dithering to a 16 bit project... Krystal will stay as my CD mastering device, it seems.....Krystal will, of course, never do 88.2 or 96k.

I haven't really started to work at the higher sampling rates, but expect to very soon, and see the market going that way for some, but not all, projects. The SACD thing will work with the higher sampling rates, but you are being asked to mix through an analog mixer when you do that these days, and I am guessing that the new Genex dual system PCM/DSD hard disk recorder is going to change that picture anyway, but the DM2000 is high enough quality to make the transition, in my opinion.

The Alesis hard disk recorders are supposed to be just fine, by the way, if a little limited. I have been considering getting a pair for backup and to work with some clients. I don't think they are as flexible in terms of slapping the hard drive into your computer (the MX is great for this), but I don't have the full picture yet. They are supposed to sound good and be very easy to use. Also very cheap and use cheap hard drives (the MXs are SCSI only, but the price has dropped there as well).....The Alesis decks are light pipe. The MXs can have digital cards of any flavor....I don't know that much about the Mackie system.