MOTUnation.com

I've been following the discussions here of the new ultralite. It looks like a nice piece, however its a little unclear as to what the actual gain range on the preamps is. MOTU states 60db range through use of a 3way pad and 24db adjustable. So it looks like the pres go from -36 to +24. Can someone confirm this? +24 max seems pretty lame to me (and most people have no use for -36), especially considering that competing units from presonus, m-audio, etc go to at least +40-50 or higher (but don't have the same sound quality presumabely).

Hi everyone. I am new on this formun and would like to see any help about this question from baanes. I am in the same crossroad. Thanks in advance.
P.D. Mackie Onyx 400 looks like a better sounding pre device, but is now having some issues regarding OS Tiger.

Regards.

I have an Onyx 1220 and an UltraLite. The UL has some fairly ordinary single-chip preamps, while the Mackie has their typical discrete preamps. I expect that the Mackie will perform better. I have been meaning to do a comparison, just haven't gotten around to it. I would be happy to plug in a mic and give it a shot if anyone can suggest a good test. I may be able to borrow a very expensive tube mic, if not I have a 4033 I can use.

I do not know for sure, but I am fairly certain the 400 has the same preamps as Mackie's mixers.

I'm sure the onyx pres sound much better than what is in the ultralite (although if you had time to do a quick comparison any feedback would be appreciated by plenty of people). However what I am wondering is if the pres on the ultralite are only able to provide +24db of gain, which doesn't seem like much at all.

Two inputs on the UltraLite (the XLRs) can be trimmed from unity to +60dB. They have +24dB of adjustment, plus a pad that can be set to 0dB, +18dB, or +36dB.

The remaining inputs (the TRSs) can be trimmed unity to +18dB. They don't have enough gain for a condenser mic using a TRS cable.

i'm not so sure it'd be a hot idea to plug a mic directly into the TRS analog ins ( 3 - 8 ) anyway.....

you'd probably want to go through a mic pre first, no ?

That one needs phantom power too.