Is There A Quality Difference In AD/DA Converters?

I think if you are buying new gear today, that's probably very true. However, when I updated my older Mackie system to a UAD Apollo, the difference was night and day in playback alone...

I can tell the difference between interfaces used to record songs. I have been able to detect that a recording was tracked with different gear than the band's usual by listening to the tracks. Engineers leave fingerprints too. Where were the Mics positioned? What Mics?

When I got my RME, I was surprised at the differences in what I heard and how I worked.

Converters certainly make a difference in the quality of a recorded signal.  And by converter, I mean a complete system accepting an analog line-level signal with no amplification involved.  Systems which are fed through a preamp, are not converters but they do contain converters.  
 
The analog components in a converter such a line level op-amps or discreet designs make a much bigger difference than the actual converter chip.  
 
Preamps make a much bigger difference than those analog components in the converter as they are designed to amplify a tiny signal sometimes thousands of times to reach an acceptable level.
 
Mics make a much bigger difference than the preamp as they are the source of the sound from an electrical and engineering standpoint.
 
The room and mic position make a bigger difference than the mic as the sound of any player is a combination of direct and reflective sound.  There isn't much of a difference between a $200 and $2000 microphone when placed poorly in a bad room, at least not one the listener will care about.  
 
The player and the instrument are even more important than the room since they are the source of the sound.  If they aren't any good, you might as well give up now.  
 
If you spend a great deal of money on quality mics and preamps, and you are recording world class musicians in a superb environment, then a great converter will shine above a cheap one.  I can certainly tell the difference, but only when the other factors are up to snuff.  
 
 

Hi,
Personnaly I did felt some changes when I replaced my Behringer 2496 with a Sonifex but it is not the heart of the target.
The fact is that if one uses gears that are qualified in his personnal scale as professionnal ,it will incline him or her to behave professionnaly.
I mean that if you record your song on an old Gibson in front of a great Neumann mike with a recognised ingenior driving the desk there are chances that you consider you are doing something important,if you play the same tune on your asian copy with your cheap usb interface things might be different.
I am aware that if you are convinced an involved in what you are doing,no matter the gears ( I've heard that some great guitar solos were recorded in a hotel room with headphones as a mike)
Just to say that gears in general ,and convertors as part of the game,are important because they act on the way we behave.
All the best.
Olivier

batsbrew
THIS IS VERY TELLING....
 
"It doesn’t matter which converter you get once you’re at that level of quality."
 
most folks here, i say the great majority, never reach "that level of quality" to start with.
 
so, it's all relative to the level of quality you are starting with.
 
i also disagree with the validity of this test....
my own experience has shown that the convertor by itself is not the only factor..
the preamps (if included) play a HUGE HUGE difference...
 
and it should be as obvious as the nose on your face.
 
 
my experience shows me that using 'cheap' mic pres and convertors, really shows up across MULTIPLE tracks in a single song....
 
it's as if the lack of clarity of a track, whether pushing tubes into harmonic distortion on purpose or accident, or simply not having the gain of a solid state preamp dialed in, can create a collective 'sonic haze' over the entire playback,
the more tracks, the worse it gets.
 
i say get the best convertors you can afford, and move on.
 
make the best of what you got, and move on.
 
but don't try to convince folks that the quality of convertors doesn't matter.
looking at a single track and measuring it, does not tell the story.
 
 
 
also, play me just ONE mix that ethan winer has ever done, that kicks ass.
just one.
 
 
also,
research this same argument at mixerman's 'the womb'
classic

+10,000

I think it would be interesting to have some of the posters who claim to have such wonderful hearing actually take Ethan's challenge and prove that they can truly hear half of what they claim.  Talk is cheap, can you even tell the difference between something that has passed through a mid-range audio AD/DA setup 10 times?  Post your findings here and lets see how well your ears past the test after he publishes the answers.
 
Glen

In my experience, it is the preamp and the (headphone-)amplifier which makes the difference. Even low budget interfaces like the scarlett have "ok-isch" converter. But the analog parts of the cirquits are expensive. Using an additional preamp as well as a headphone amp changes the whole experience.
Try to use a really good DI (Neve RNDI) instead of the HZ input of the interface: There is the real difference. And this gear will stay in your studio for generations of audio interfaces...