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Up until this review, I've never used a desktop interface or monitor controller, as I drive a console with rack-mounted converters/interfoces. Sure, I've watched my less-fortunate colleagues and students struggle with some pretty bad (and quite popular and cheap) devices that are inadequate for pro use in many ways-including their mic preamps, converters, headphone amps and general build quality. The SPL Crimson appears to solve these problems and offer enough flexibility to claim the top perch in this category.
Features
Input section: two single-transistor discrete mic preamps (with phantom power, HPF; XLR inputs), two pairs of line inputs on quarter-inch balanced TRS connections, two Hi-Z instrument inputs on quarter-inch TS, a pair of RCAs and an eighth-inch stereo miniplug for -10 dB consumer devices (with an automatic, bypassable gain boost to pro level), and a digital input via SPDIP
Monitor section: a large unstepped control-room level control, two sets of control room outputs (set A on XLR, set B on quarter-inch TRS with "tweaker" trim controls), two headphone amps with quarter-inch TRS outputs and high output, a balance control for blending between the analog input section and the DAW returns.
DAW implementation: two pairs of DAW returns via one USB 2.0 input (not 3.0, but 2.0 for its faster and more stable drivers with 1 ms of latency), a total of six simultaneous channels of conversion to/from DAW, 24-bit processing, sample rates up to 192 kHz, and low-jitter fixed internal master clock. The Crimson will operate sans drivers (using Core Audio), but high sample rates and low latency requires SPL drivers.
In Use
I started out using...