Prism Sound Dream ADA-8XR in action
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2024
- This time we test one of the finest AD/DA converters on the market: The Prism Sound Dream ADA-8XR: bit.ly/1NJGy5U.
Download the full quality audio files here: bit.ly/1sbOJec
If you want the Prism Sound Dream ADA-8XR on your music try our Mixing & Mastering service: www.doctormix.com/mixing-and-...
0:18 - Overview
1:23 - Experiment 1
2:20 - A/B
4:46 - Experiment 2
7:01 - A/B
7:55 - Experiment 3
11:32 - Comparison - เพลง
Damn, your voice is processed to perfection. I can't even remember the last time I heard such exceptional vocal processing in a TH-cam video. To me the voice leading up to the actual tests is even more interesting to listen than the experiments themselves.
Great comparison! Thanks so much for doing this. All the hype for Prism stuff
finally somebody actually lets us hear a great A/B comparison.
The Overkiller really preserved the transients in some extreme conditions.
cheers Doctor!
+Steve Wills Glad you liked it! :) We're big fans of Prism Sound here and work with their gear every day
Ada kills, it sounds close to a Studer. Pleasantly surprised also by the HD. Thanks for the great comparison, it's rare to see something so well done with the levels perfectly matched, specially involving super expensive stuff. I am starting to be a fanboy of your work.
Very clear differences. The low end is just great on the prism. The coolest was the crash symbol on the AD comparison at +6 or +8 db and how you could hear it tail beautifully on the prism, and on the old Avid it just collapses. But LOTS OF GREAT RECORDS WERE RECORDED AND MIXED WITH THOSE OLD AVID 192s!!!! I have Lyra2, which has the same converters at the Titan he uses to to pitch or catch in this demo. Very cool demo. Would love to hear the 8XR versus Lynx Hilo in an exact same comparison!!
actually one of the best comparisons iv ever seen/heard. well done guys! can really tell the difference, i really like that definition
Nice! I'm glad you do... we were blown away!
I like RME UFX+ Thunderbolt interface, 0.7 ms latency, stable driver, perfect quality. Prism is slow in innovation.
Dr mix, thanks for this comparison. You said "wow "when comparing the sound and then said you need to download the files below . I did and i'm still finding the expression "this costs a s### load of money!" more apt at this point.
=)
Dude I think you are one of the only people doing audio gear vids actually useful compared to most people! Thank you! Some people use material that sounds bad to begin with then they run it through expensive gear, like whats the point lol The 3 thumbs down on this vid are I guess bc they can't afford the prism and they are mad?
@Carlos Dias Exactly. They're mad because the poster has something better and more expensive then they have so they have to attack and criticize him so they can feel better about their low end, shitty equipment that they probably bought from ButtMart...oops I mean Walmart;)
This Prism sounds awesome 👏👏👏
I just want to say thank you for doing this. The prisms sound really good!
Thanks Matt! Yes, the Prisms have an excellent sound!
And also an excellent price...;)
Excellent! Prism Sound is great! Thank you for the video!
I heard much more of a distance with the house song weirdly, the Ada does great things by the sounds of it! Great vid.
fantastic comparison!
it's time to save up for the prism..
Hahaha! Go for it! Glad you liked the video!
People don't by music base on which drum kick or vocal sounds better that's all engineering stuff. It's all about how you can connect with the song the feel you get from the artist performance. If you look most people and young kids are reverting back to the old 60's to 90's recording's which songs are not clean as now but the feel they get from the artist is there. Good job on the comparison enjoyed it very much It is good to see and hair these differences for engineers only.
Thanks for the reply DOCTOR! I was just floored with the comparison so I purchased
the prism orpheus. Is there any benefit with using the overkill limiter in tracking, mixing
or mastering? If its there and it's so solid, I feel I should be using it. Or should I primarily
use it just for maybe to tame a quick transient like a vocalist screaming into the mic
without me knowing (and preparing proper gain staging) he/she is going to do that.?
cheers! and keep up the great work!
steve
Thank you, it helps me a lot
Cheers Doctor Mix i got a question since you guy's used both i'm in between a Prism ADA 8RX or a Merging Horus could you advise me to make my choice i master with it premiere thank you
Hi Doctor Mix, is the Atlas used for the A to D duties and the 192 and ADA-8XR only as a D to A ?
These gear demonstrations are amazing, I'll soon send you my mixes for mastering
what the what, this has been one the most distinguishable tests i have found between interfaces.
crazy. all them console emus are a hard to hear on yt but you can hear what hi end units like this and lavry and analog tape does even trough youtube
Is there any chance you can compare the ADA-8XR to the Atlas? It's obvious the 192 is out of the game. But it would be interesting to hear the two Prisms go head to head.
Very nice
Question I see the Prism ADA RX8 has AES connections can I connect this to a Apollo X16 with AES ?
If you're using good speakers, you can hear the difference, and it genuinely is subtle. Even so, it's there -- particularly in the bass, where the Prism is tighter and more defined. The top end is also a bit smoother yet also slightly more detailed with the Prism, and the combined effect of these differences create an image that is certainly more spacious and "professional" than the 192. Because of that, if you're a professional pursuing the highest level of quality + you have the money...yeah, it's worth the money!
Andrew Weitz yes and don’t forget about the crazy youtube compression that kills everything
ADA-8XR brings the sound more clear. I can hear it when I do blind audition with my ATH-m50x without an external soundcard.
really big difference there....ty
thanks! MH ULN8 or ADA-8XR ?
Hi Dr Mix, I think it's time for you to test the new ADA-128, don't you think ? I look forward to your test maybe next year...
Nice comparison! Please correct me if I'm wrong, but what I did was put the audio files on separate tracks in my DAW (Logic Pro X), inverted the phase in one track and the result is the difference between the two converters, right? By ear (at least for me) the difference can't seem be very noticeable: the bass freqs a bit tight and a little more air in the high freqs (some are more noticeable depending on each example), but when you hear the result by inverting the phase you can hear a lot of content all across the spectrum. Thanks a lot!
John Acosta We also think there's a great improvement with the Prism Sound convertors! Glad you enjoyed the video
does the 192 only work with protool?
Have you compared the Prism ADA-8 to the Prism Titan? If not, could you do a video between the Titan and the ADA-8?
I contacted Prism and they said that it's about 50/50 for those who prefer the new Titan vs the ADA-8. One ADA-8 user says her prefers the AD of the Titan vs. the AD of the ADA-8 but prefers the DA of the ADA-8 over the Titan.
Hi Doctor mix! How dose the 8XR sounds compard to a Titan?
Beyond Compare
Are we listening the AD of the Atlas? Have you thought about jitter issues between two independent devices? Many things may cause difference
Yes, you're listening to the AD of the Atlas, apart from the last experiment where we used a different setup. We tried to minimise potential deviation issues by using the Pro Tools HD as the master clock for all units.
I own a Burl Mothership how does the Prism compare?
Just wandering, is there any way to record the exact quality (or something really close) in such a way that the average headphones or people with lower quality ear phones can at least, perceive an iota of the sound track's greatness?
Hi! You have to imagine that a good sounding mix is a combination of a lot of elements. If you have great converters each step of the way then in the end you'll have layers of great quality, which will eventually result in a better sounding piece of music. In other words a straight A/B comparison might not mean much to the average listener, but having a top class converter like this as part of your production flow, will bake the difference between a good and a great sounding recording. No doubt.
Thanks very much for the video Dr Mix.
What's the best Prism Sound AD converter in your opinion? 2 Channel Vs 2 Channel
i.e. only using 2 channels even if using a multi channel unit. I know some of these models are legacy models.
Prism Dream AD-2 Vs Prism ADA-8XR Vs
Prism Lyra 1 or Prism Lyra 2 Vs Prism Orpheus
I’ve had all of them. Probably the 8XR is the most professional of the bunch, because of all the controls and features. However the Lyra 2 is nice and portable so... hard to say.
@@Doctormix Thanks a lot for replying to me. I appreciate your channel and thoughts!
definitely crisper!
I can clearly hear the difference! 192 sounds tense and harsh VS the more relaxed sound of the Prism.
How does the Atlas compare to the 8XR?
Were any of these recorded in DSD?
Hey Doc, do you remember the sample rates used on both of these units? The reason I ask is because higher sample rates usually give cleaner high end and I hear that detail on the prism that's why I think you hear wider stereo because clearer highs gives that illusion Such is the case on plugins like the waves la2a where people say it's wider but it's not it's high end is just notched up and it brings out that detail on the sides without increase in volume. Also if we are listening to this on average sound cards and we hear the difference how does that work? If our cheap sound cards dac's aren't capable of this result then surely we shouldn't be able to hear this difference ? I mean we are supposedly hearing the difference in expensive dac's on our cheap dac's so our dac's are capable of the same thing?
+Drererere Derererere The reason can be explained by way of an analogy. Think of the audio chain as a series of slightly dirty glass panes being stacked in series one after the other. Each time you add a "slightly dirty" pane of glass, a little more light gets blocked/distorted. So, even if the dirtiest lens is the last one in the chain, cleaning one of the slightly dirty lenses in the middle of the chain can still be perceived as an overall improvement. In other words, the overall distortion OF THE WHOLE CHAIN is what we hear. Cleaning any part of that WHOLE CHAIN reduces THE SUM TOTAL of dirt at the output.
+Huxxy ^Perfect answer that! :)
Were you playing Death Magnetic there at 9:25 ?
Haha I think we might have been ;)
Great video of superb units. But evaluating stereo image quality with headphones is a challenge.
I can imagine it would be! haha. Thanks for watching :)
Very subtle difference. A null test on the downloaded files shows a small difference in the mid thru high range and little or no difference in the bass region.
Great job on level matching.
It's all in the subtlety! Glad you enjoyed our work
the prism is a more luxury sound lot more fine and depth to me
It's pretty clear, i have to sell all my children so i can afford the prism. Coz i gotta have one.
Lol. Tell me when you get it so I can go listen to it :D
How does this compare to Merging Horus?
Prism sound rules! Which house song was that?
Yeah I agree, Prism Sound is awesome. Top top top quality. The house song is our original work, not available commercially.
i must have seen this video about 20x right now. and today was the first time i ever heard the differences he was talking about. for the longest time i thought it was a joke. what changed? the interface. i bought an old digi 002 with black lion mod. what did i use to listen to before? UAD apollo or bose qc2. my conclusion if u cant hear the differences in lower end products how does it matter then?
Very subtle, but I do hear the difference in width and depth. The ADA sounds like it pulled a very thin fabric off the speaker's cones. If you can afford it, why not. Would I save up, nope, just a little more work to do in the mixing stage.
Excellent! What do you guys think about the conversion of the ADA8-XR comparing to Lynx Hilo and Prism Orpheus/Atlas/Titan? Is it a matter of taste or you can hear significant improvement in transparency and stereo image?
The 192 is bright and sound more fast for cinematic, the ada sound dark and a little slow . That’s the reason the industry used for years the 192s . On Capitol they still use the 192 and HDs BUT paired with a Antelope Trinity. Need to test that combinations. The Ada sound smooth and relaxed , the 192 like pop .
exactly what you want to say bro, its amazing put ups for our understanding but little confusing me pls tell one perfect thing pls dont mind
Hi Doctor Mix, i have an Apollo 8 quad thunderbolt and i am planning on getting the Prism Dream ada 8 xr as i am also wanting to purchase a Teletronix la2a and a Dangerous bax eq. Would you please explain to how i would connect these effeciently and the correct way?
Hi Beat Doctor, quite simple :-) Make sure you buy the correct card for your ADA 8XR: there is one for Pro Tools HD, one for Firewire, and I'm sure you can find one that accommodates your system. Then either use a patchbay (that's what we do) to connect everything with great flexibility. Alternatively you can connect each piece of gear's INs & OUTs to the back of your ADA and use your DAW to setup one analogue insert for each piece of gear. Easy ;-)
Doctor Mix So i finally purchased my ada 8 xr fw. This is the best sounding converters i have ever used, this video kind of pushed me in the right direction into making this purchase. Anymore tips on the ada 8 xr? I would like to know when you did this comparison test why you didnt just stereo print into the DAW you were using?
Doctor Mix Hi Doctor Mix , i also just purchased the prism dream ada 8 xr after our little chat. On the second comparison with the fat boy comp, you sent 8 tracks into the prism converters then printed them out via stereo as one file. How did you do that with Prism? I understand aux sends and printing on my DAW (protools) but not through converters. Please explain.
cobey mlambo Hey Cobey, firstly congratulations, you've really got yourself a great piece of gear! The reason why we didn't print back into the same DAW is because we had to hit play and stop in order to demonstrate the system; that would have interrupted the recording every time. Additionally, we wanted the same recording set up for consistency on the video. Of course, with this kind of tests there is always a compromise somewhere, but we thought that having an entirely separate rig to capture the audio would provide a better reference for this video. Thanks!
The BeatDoctor Hi BeatDoctor, congratulations to you too! I am so glad that our opinion influenced your decision. ;-) We couldn't think higher of the Prism Sound gear. For the summing with Fat Bustard experiments we played back 8 tracks out of the ADA 8XR, going into 8 inputs of the Fat Bustard and recorded the summed stereo out via the Prism Sound Atlas. Hope this helps.
Great video, I herd they say antelope converters are great also with the plugins. Can you do a comparison between the Orion studio and the uad apollo 8
Hi red mase, when we've had the chance to use Antelope convertors, they have indeed sounded great! Unfortunately we don't have either of those interfaces in the studio currently. Maybe one day ;)
Doctor Mix thanks for the response, I am finishing a mix to use your mastering services for the first time also thank you for all your helpful videos.
red mase Hey, it's a pleasure! We look forward to hearing your music! :)
O.O :O from the earth to the heaven differences !!
try the ssl x logic alpha link
while the prism converters showed a little bit more detail we don't think is worth the price jump. At this point in time the difference between converters is similar to the difference between different tape machines back in the old days.
Ampex Studer and MCI all had a different sound, all of them were great. In this day and age when the music industry is going broke with their right mind would spend money on something like the Prism unless they hit the lottery. LOL.
Is this 10% difference cost 10 000$ more?
Now try the Iz ADA Nyquist.
awesome prism in all except the clipping which to me sound bad in both at 8,5 aprox even with limiter in the prism
I'm monitoring via Antelope Orion Studio and the "difference" isn't that deep.
huge difference
I does, doesn't it?
I prefer the Pro-tools AD/DA I like the bass, but I'm use to vinyl and cassettes.
Hi,even after auditioning to mastering grade headphones,I havent found any difference.If I dont look into the solo buttons which you are constantly switching,nobody can even figure out any change not even you bro.
also ultimately both output are passing trough atlas so it does not make any sense.Moreover any subtle variation will always be there between any two brands and its upto to consider which is better or not sonically.its very subjective..If you says that bass is more pronounced in prism,I can say that prism is colored that it is pushing up the bass.however practically there is no audible difference at all.both are equally good.only the physical features may vary like in/outs-inbuilt effects,pad,routing facilities,ports,etc
forse la differenza la può fare con dei monitor di fascia più elevata di quelli che ho io, ma altrimenti la differenza è così sottile che si nota ben poco
I think it is not a good demo cause to me the the mix on the top sound a lot better as other pointed less info in highs and no difference on bass but high on the mix in the bottom are very very harsh, the mix at the top a lot warmer then the second one, perhaps it is bad mixed, who knows?
The transient from the prism looks more accurate and sounds better not by much. But if you l look at the price range of the Prism and Avid 192 the 192 is the way to go it's a performance difference that is very very close which is unnoticeable by an untrained ear.
192 sounds harsh, ADA-8XR sounds beautiful
Prism are the best converters anyway
Doctor Mix, you rock - great job! I just wanna make something clear.There's a big hype going on in the world of da/ad converters. The thruth is, some of the products are totally overhyped - for example the Prism 8XR, very expensive unit. In a double blind test, it lacks in comparison to the other converters. Check out on YT : HD High Noon @ Metropolis Studios or read it on this link: www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=13352 "Most of those present where suprised to see the Prism ADA-8XR, aka converter A, beaten into third place.
Soundclass Thanks, we think the Prism Sound Convertors sound great though and are very impressed with them! We'll be sure to look into these other ones though. :-)
Doctor Mix For sure, top notch gear! Mandy Parnell use also the ADA-8XR in her mastering studio, and that alone says a lot. There's tons of good stuff out there, and the degredation from a mix or mastering engineer who works day by day diffrently is so much bigger than a acurate converter who split hairs.No converter sounds always "the best".
It is the relation to the music, mixing console, microphon, client preference etc....
Mostly trained ears will hear the big difference. Not everyone hears the depth, width and detail, so they can't appreciate it as much. I do!
Is buying this gonna win me a grammy?
Definitely ;)
Of course.... we're getting ready for you right now!!
The only difference I hear is the bank teller saying you have over drafted funds in you checking account..
That’s not subtle even over TH-cam audio, which, as you know, isn’t the best! +4 or +6 are options with the ADA. Not even an option with the 192. Clearly defined even on this audio format. I would guess this ADA is a candidate for the get a home loan award. That would be my guess. Worth it!
how much does it cost the ADA 8xr? yes, you feel the difference, but really spend thaaaat money on that subtle difference? i don't know……. Well i know, i would love to be a millonear but i think you can have other options
It's about 8 grand (GBP)... not cheap, but this quality doesn't come for free :-) Hihihi
If you wanna do a big improvement for a reasonable price, buy a Mytek 8×192ADDA or better, a MERGING Hapi converter.
It sound like the Prism mix was run through a stereo reverb.
Dream, Hedd, Lavry and haha my AD+. A converter can make you a man or damn 😂
There is a noticeable difference but not HUUUUGE.
Stereo Image is wider and there is better separation. HF's are clear and more defined and natural. Low end is tighter and punchier as he says. All is true but a casual listener is not gonna notice as well as listen to it on shitty iPhone buds. :\
doc must have paid a lot for the ADA so now it has to sound better.
Man you heard it! Did you buy it because of this video??
THE PRISM ADA is top noch and still way better than modern UA, Apogee, Lynx, etc....
192 sound like covered with a blanket
they sound the same...
15:30
Really small differences here. If I close my eyes and just listen to the sounds, I think the Prism has a hair more brilliance in the highs and the smallest extension in the lows. We're talking 1-2% differences here, and honestly, you can get away with converters a hell of a lot cheaper than these.
I dont know what this guy is hearing... but i cant hear the difference.. 8-)
totally agree, imagine these musics playing somewhere on the tv, in the park, in public clubs or phones no one would hear the difference and still enjoy the music as it is, if you over kill you brain and stress it to something you can even start seeing a zebra as a donkey from distance. Both hardware are equal in fact I would give more points to 192 because he said its old brother, which means the new brother with the new technology still sounds the same. Anyways I heard some really nicely mixed musics thank you Doctor Mix.
Guess your ears don’t work yet. The difference is extremely clear. The 192 is vastly inferior
You hear things, that we cant hear over the crapy youtube sound quality. This comparison is completly nonsense over a mp3 demonstration. Yes i know that there is a big difference in the performance.
use headphones m8
the guy is hearing: PLACEBO!
:)
wow, so much talking over the music
no FFT, no spectrums, not even a null test to hear the difference between the converters. this whole video is a "trust your ears" nonsense video with no science