ORIGINAL: jackn2mpu

ORIGINAL: Jeff Evans

Those mic pres are similar. When they are set to unity gain they would be just acting as an impedance matcher if you like at a gain of 1 say. And although they are before the A to D converters I am very sure Roland have done a fine job at making them sound as transperant as possible. (especially at low gain) From an electronics point of view, when a stage of amplification only has to be a gain of 1, then it is very easy to achieve and the best performance is then possible with things like frequency response, distortion, noise, transient response, etc.

All true, but the signal is STILL going through that pre's electronics. The only thing is you're not providing any signal level change to the signal. The only way to get a truly transparent setup is to go straight to the input of the A/D converters.

If the VS-700R pre's are unity gain across the frequency spectrum even with high input levels (below A/D clipping levels), then they should be "transparent" for practical purposes. That is the question. This question may or may not be just theoretical. There is also the preception of potential customers (right or wrong).

There is a similarity to the tube guitar amp debate. Can a modeling amp get close enough to the tone of a tube amp. For some people and some purposes, yes. For others, no. And there is the strong perception that tube amps are better. I happen to like tube amps. Some people like the esthetics of an external pre-amp just like some people prefer a control surface to a mouse.

A few demos should provide real world insight on this issue.

If you are wondering that the A to D process is not going to carry the coloration through from an analog pre into the digital signal, I believe it does.

Here is an interesting story. In Mix Magazine a while ago they published an article about an interesting AB test they did to over 1000 people. They took a very analog signal source and fed it to positon A on a switch box. They also ran the analog source through an A to D converter and then a D to A converter and put that on position B of the switch box. All connected to a very nice set of reference monitors. So A was the true analog source and B was the same signal going through A to D and D to A and at 16 Bit 44.1 Khz as well.

Only half could tell the difference and many famous engineers that have created productions we all hold as being amazing were in the half that could not tell the difference.
What does thay say about digital as a medium for transferring an analog signal. Says to me that its amazing doesn't it. Sort of blows away the higher digital resolution arguments as well dont you think.

A source going through a vintage pre and then into the VS 700R will give one very nice sound and it will have the full glory of the analog pre in its sound and the signal going straight to the VS700R pre will also be excellent and will sound a little different to the other, just minus the analog pre but still a lovely representaion of the sound source.

That specially designed table for your V Studio is very impressive. Are you putting your monitors on the top shelf. How far apart will they be? Good place for them and to be close to your near fileds. The good thing is you can move that setup around if you needed to as well. (Away from the wall will change the sound of your near fields) What about your QWERTY keyboard and mouse locations. You still need them. I have my QWERTY keyboard directly in front of the V 700C console. It seems to work very well there. But well done!

Here's the working setup with a couple of blank spots. When the VS 700 is added the patch bay will feed the V-700 R from the 8 inputs on the bottom row. The console will go on the big extendable shelf. I'll work out the keyboard and mouse later. I had limited space so I had to compact things.