MOTUnation.com

I came across this the other night and found it rather interesting in that Black Lion Audio's staff rates the audio quality of various brands of interfaces on a scale of 1-10. They rate the initial sound quality and then the sound quality after their mod(s) are performed.

I was surprised to see the MOTU interfaces rated low (prior to mods) and the Avid stuff very high (prior to mods). My particular interface, the MOTU HD192 is rated a 4 (as stock) and then after a $300+ mod it bumps to 6 and after $750+ mod it bumps up to a 7. Given the age of the HD192 and that it's a PCIe-based interface (needing the PCIe-424 card to connect via Audiowire) I can't see this being a good value for me unless I think I'm going to keep this interface for many more years.

Either way... it seemed interesting.

Black Lion has given bad ratings on MOTU interfaces for some time, blaming the analog sections. I've heard people rave about the improvement from a Black Lion mod, and others say there is no improvement at all, and it's all bogus.

Sounds like a Monster Cable grift to me.

Hell, I've got Roger Nichols' 896mk3, and HE didn't send it to Black Lion.

Somewhat OT, but I've been thinking about getting a new future-proof I/O (one with USB and TB) and have been referring to this document on GS on converter transparency. MOTU interfaces are all over the map. My 2408mk3 is way up there as is the 828mk2 - tied with the best Apogee and above most Lynx and all Prisms and Apollos! HD192 is about in the middle of the pack. The few BL mods in here don't fare too well. I don't entirely understand the methodology or metrics, but it seems mainly focused on accuracy of the converters, not quality of sound per se.

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/12888380-post1480.html
(the higher the "difference" no. the better btw. they're ranked from best to worst).

dix wrote:(the higher the "difference" no. the better btw. they're ranked from best to worst).

Best to worst: so the RME Babyface is the worst converter tested so far? Worse than a POD? Any the 2408 is right up there. That's a surprise too.

I know! It's a weird list. I promise you my Apogee Ensemble's converters sound much better than the 2408mk3's, but apparently not as accurate. ...of course they're all insane over there at Gearslutz

I wonder if there is some advantage to choosing A/D and D/A separately? I have a Focusrite 18i8 I bought in a hurry when my 828-3 died. Overall, it's pretty mediocre, but the D/A for sounds encoded on other units is superb -- clear stable imaging and all that, way better than sounds originally converted from analog on this same unit.

I wonder if there’s a chart showing the profitability for the various mods. Just sayin’...

I never trusted this 828mkII mods that actually increased to noise floor.