ProAudio Review - October 2008 - (Page 16) STUDIO | REVIEW ing on pairs 1/2 & 3/4, in both mic- and lineinput modes. The interface mixing and monitoring facilities of the Orpheus are the finest I've seen. Beyond supplying the usual means to route and monitor a low-latency input mix (>0.5ms at 48kHz and proportionally lower as fs increases), the control panel includes a dedicated "foldback" mixer for each of the analog output pairs as well as for the S/PDIF and headphone outputs. Each mixer provides full fader mixing and panning of the analog and S/PDIF input channels plus DAW output. Enhancing the monitoring facilities, the headphones source can be derived from its dedicated input mixer or quickly stepped across any of the aforementioned output pairs – a great help in monitoring/adjusting performers' phone mixes or ensuring stem mixes to a video deck contain the correct information etc. Note that ADATformat signals are not accessible in any of the mixing/monitoring features of the Orpheus. There are only a couple things on my Orpheus wish-list, but at the top would be provision for control surface access to the many mixer layers and their respective fader, pan and mute controls – I wouldn't be asking if Prism hadn't made the mixers so damn useful! The non-traditional glow-stick metering is a bit outside of my taste, and takes some getting used to: they do not display level gradients but instead change intensity and colors at defined thresholds. This may prove to be problematic for a visiting engineer looking for a trad level readout. Of more fundamental importance to me is parallel routing of channel 1 to 4's XLR and TRS inputs so that either can be routed to the mic preamps or the line inputs. As it stands the XLR is auto-selected as mic and sent to the preamp and the TRS is sent to the line amp. This implementation makes use of the first four channels on a patchbay an impossibility if you want to be able to variably use the inputs for line and mic signals, depending on your current needs. [“This architecture was chosen in the interest of improved signal integrity,” offers Prism Sound. — Ed.] SUMMARY Having had the pleasure of reviewing a few Prism Sound products for Pro Audio Review in the last several years, it is no great admission that I am a big fan – the Prism products are of the highest technical integrity and overall sonic quality. The Orpheus maintains this highroad with its fully balanced analog paths, measurement instrument-grade conversion and as transparent sonic throughput as I have encountered in a FireWire interface. For those with the financial wherewithal, the Orpheus could be one of the best upgrade investments a DAWbased studio can make. PAR Studio Editor Stephen Murphy was engineered and produced almost 41 years ago via vintage, all-analog techniques. His website is www.smurphco.com PRISM BENCH TEST continues on page 18 ® PRISM Continued From Page 14 vides mic gain adjustment via faders and line sensitivity via -10dBV/+4dBu switches, plus a set of per-channel buttons engages (via hardware relays, in a testament to path purity) Prism's progressive Overkiller limiters; corresponding limiting action is displayed on the hardware meters. Each of the first four channels includes a selectable 80Hz high-pass filter and phase reverse switch, and the first two also include the RIAA deemphasis filter for vinyl ingest. A muchappreciated inclusion is built-in M-S matrix- 16 | ProAudio Review | October 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.zaxcom.com http://www.smurphco.com http://www.zaxcom.com http://www.proaudioreview.com
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