Guitar Gear Forum

Hey guys. I have been thinking about purchasing a quality but not too expensive mic preamp. SO far, I have been really impressed with the demos I have heard of the Focusrite ISA single mic preamp.

Anyway, I would plan on connecting it to my M-Audio ProFire 610 interface by running the XLR output of the preamp and connect it to one of the inputs of the ProFire's mic preamps.

Now I know that some guys will have a standalone analog to digital converter hooked up between an interface and a mic preamp, but the ProFire 610 is capable of doing A/D or D/A conversion. My question is by plugging in a mic preamp into the interface's own preamp, will the ProFire automatically know to do the conversion, or do I still have to connect some conversion device with the S/PDIF inputs? I have read stuff online and looked at the manual, but I am a n00b at this stuff.

Thanks guys!

The soundcard does all the conversion .some people use separate convertors for better quality.

Also, if your soundcard has 1/4 inch line inputs i would use those when using a standalone preamp. If you just plug the output of the preamp into the soundcard preamps, you are kinda defeating the purpose of a higher quality preamp..

Now, if you use the digital ins(provided the focusrite has a digital out and is providing ad/da conversion) then i would use the spdif. This way you can set up the preamp to do the ad/da conversion which can be better than the soundcard..

EndTime wrote:The soundcard does all the conversion .some people use separate convertors for better quality.

Also, if your soundcard has 1/4 inch line inputs i would use those when using a standalone preamp. If you just plug the output of the preamp into the soundcard preamps, you are kinda defeating the purpose of a higher quality preamp..

Now, if you use the digital ins(provided the focusrite has a digital out and is providing ad/da conversion) then i would use the spdif. This way you can set up the preamp to do the ad/da conversion which can be better than the soundcard..

EndTime to the rescue!

Yeah, the ProFire has 1/4 inch line inputs as well. Thanks for the tip!

Remember to use TRS cables for connecting the preamp to the line ins:

nakedzen wrote:Remember to use TRS cables for connecting the preamp to the line ins:

Duly noted. Thanks, man!