tascam 1641 factoids - the truth

[newkid]

seeing lots of sales on the 1641 right now - 299
looks good for 8 mikes + 6 line + stereo spdif

BUT
downloaded the manuals and literature

there are NO specs for bandwidth or noise or anything

I am thinking they must have cut corners to put so much into that box for such a low price if they hide the specs

some cheaper interfaces (with lots LESS i/o) do give their specs as fl to fhi +/- nr of db
and noise = -xxx db
etc

why does tascam not tout their numbers?
they must stink if they wont tell us

anybody got some true factoids about tascam ???

i wuold like to like this box so I can convince myself to get it

[bozmillar]

I want to hear them too. I just bought it, but haven't hooked it up yet. Probably this weekend.

[bozmillar]

um, the specs are in the manual. page 26

[garww]

I really don't see a lot of specs on consumer gear. Much of what I see isn't very useful.

[etrose]

interesting, i just bought one on ebay today and then saw this post :/

[garww]

Last time I looked the E-Mu cards were showing useful specs. It's possible that since they know the internals are the same, they see no need to publish identical specs : ) What about distortion ? And, at what levels ?

from the 1212m analog out;
" Type: Balanced, low-noise, 3-pole low-pass differential filter
D/A converter: CS4398
Level (software selectable):
- Professional: +4dBu nominal, 20dBu max (balanced)
- Consumer: -10dBV nominal, 6dBV max (unbalanced)
Frequency Response (20Hz - 20kHz): + 0.0/-.35dB,
Dynamic Range (1kHz, A-weighted): 120dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-weighted): 120dB
THD+N (1kHz at -1dBFS): -105dB (.0006%)
Stereo Crosstalk (1kHz at -1dBFS): < -115dB "

Looks like Crystal Sound on this end - the input has a different converter.

[Husky Band]

Originally Posted by newkid

seeing lots of sales on the 1641 right now - 299
looks good for 8 mikes + 6 line + stereo spdif

BUT
downloaded the manuals and literature

there are NO specs for bandwidth or noise or anything

I

I looked on page 26 and there seems to be a lot of specs that sort of look like what you are referring to. I've used a lot of Tascam stuff in the past and it has always been first rate with great service. I hope they haven't gone over to the dark side. This unit does seem to be too good to be true.

[bozmillar]

So this isn't related to specs or anything, but I hooked mine up tonight, and the first thing I noticed is that just having the unit on puts a load on my CPU. Even before I open up any recording software, just having the thing on puts a constant 10-20% load on my CPU. Not that I have the fasted computer or anything, but I've never seen anything put any kind of load on my CPU without really even doing anything. I'm not sure why it's doing this.

anybody else have this issue?

It just seems a little strange to me because with any other interface I've used, the drivers don't take any CPU until you are actually trying to monitor with it.

[garww]

Off hand, I would suspect windows or the driver is searching for something or initializing. If there is a TaskInfo for your OS, it might show if userware is causing it.

[bozmillar]

Originally Posted by garww

Off hand, I would suspect windows or the driver is searching for something or initializing. If there is a TaskInfo for your OS, it might show if userware is causing it.

You could be right, but but there is a direct correlation with how low I have my latency set to how much CPU is being used, so I feel like it's actually trying to run some I/O. But this is all just speculation. I'm having a hard time finding other people that have the same issue and have noticed it.