This is the one. This unit is beautiful.

A brief background: For years, I've been recording with a Digi-002R. I could get decent recordings, but nobody would ever mistake it for a commercial studio. After upgrading mics and then pres, I was getting better sound, but still not quite that radio-ready, finished sound. I decided it had to be the last link in my chain: The A/D conversion in the 002R.

After a long time of agonizing over what to get, I bought the Aurora 16.

Its maiden voyage was to record a jazz vocalist with a three-piece combo in a live performance. Eight channels in, all with great microphones, through great preamps, into the Aurora.

In a word: Wow. You can say of basically all of the audio interfaces out there -- even the cheap ones -- that the sound is clean, even squeaky-clean. The same holds true for the Aurora, of course, but it goes far beyond mere clean. Where the 002R sounded thin and veiled (and attempts at correcting this yielded only muddy, out-of-control bass, not to mention a frustrated engineer), this unit's bass sounds bottomless (particularly on that gorgeous old upright being recorded!), and more importantly, effortless. The warm, round tones of the bass perfectly complement the sparkling midrange on the piano, and the fresh, airy ping of the ride cymbal (no artificial brightness, no harshness). Every last sultry lyric breathed into the mic was captured with extraordinary intimacy.

This is it. This is the sound I want. This unit is beautiful.

Cons: Non-universal-voltage power supply. This is probably not going to be a huge deal, as I've yet to secure a recording job overseas, but still... It seems like every other piece of audio gear out there now has a unviersal-voltage PSU so one doesn't have to worry about this.

PRO

Excellent. I previously owned an Apogee Rosetta 200. Tone is totally different but quality is comparable. The apogee had nicer low end IMO, but overall the Aurora had a more balanced tone and slightly larger stereo image. Obviously the Aurora 16 is a better price per channel deal. I sold the Apogee and don't regret it.

BETTER THAN DIGIDESIGN 192

interface is better than the 192. comes already with 16 ins/outs. higher headroom than the 192 and apogee, very transperent sound no matter what you are recording. The only downfall is the leds in front doesnt give a proper level readout, but besides that you should always use your ears anyway. the best bang for the buck, im happy i got it instead of the 192.

Geat box!

Excellent mastering AD/DA box. for the money.

I'm very happy with this

I've been using the Aurora 16 for a few months now. and I'm very happy with it. I use a Lynx AES16 card to hook this to my PC. The sound is perfectly clean. The cost/channel of AD and DA is really great compared to the Apogee AD16 and DA16. The software mixer is very powerful -- I am able to generate a number of different zero-latency cue mixes quite easily while recording, and you can simlarly mix anything you want on playback. You can do everything you need in software right from the PC. The support is very good, and they monitor their forums very regularly. I tried clocking with and without a Big Ben, and the Big Ben added nothing compared to using the Aurora's own internal clock with synchrolock. The jitter specs on this are VERY VERY low. Overall a great product. My only small complaints are the unit emits a small pop when synchrolock kicks in, so you have to wait for synchrolock to engage prior to turning on your monitors. Also, the unit runs very warm, so you have to keep a rack space above and below it open. But it's only 1u tall itself.