Audient ASP800

It is a fantastic unit. The sound is amazing. Versatile!!! The sound range goes from neutral to strong vintage character. It is possible to completely control 2 channels; great. The other 6 channel are crystal clear. The price is interesting compared to the other unit of this brand range. Minus: I would like the phase control on all the channels, but only 2 have it. I am not satisfied by the heat the unit generate. It became really hot after one hour. I installed it in a rack position to facilitate the ventilation, but it is a constrain that it is hard for me to accept. This is the "hottest" unit I have ever had. It is over a distressor (that is absolutely cold all the time) and a free slot, but still very hot. There is no power switch, so I decided to install a switch in the free slot to power off the unit if I do not use the it (while I mix or use other pre.s) I consider this a big minus. Heat shorter the life of capacitors and other electronics components. Now days it is so easy to design a power module that do not dissipate like an heater! I know that the class A dissipate more than some other classes, but I think the majority of the heat is generated by the power unit and it is eccessive anyway. It is a pity that such a great unit is penalized by this problem. I rated 4 stars for the amazing sound and versatility, but I was tempted to lower it because of the heat problem.
Ciao

I needed to expand my system and wanted to use dual adat (smux) for 8 channels of 96khz 24-bit audio.
There are a lot of products in this price range that does the job but the build quality and the preamps of audient gear is superior to a lot of other brands.
This is also leaves your digimaxes and octopres in the dirt (as I hoped for as it`s quite abit more expensive).
You get 8 channels of super high headroom pristine preampification and all the connectivity you can expect from a DA-converter and preamp unit of this price.
The DA conversion on this unit is way better than on my motu 828mk3 hybrid, the preamps also leave the motu ones in the dust.
Individual phantom power and pad on all channels is also great. It can lock to an external wordclock, sync via adat or be the master clock.
Channels 1 and 2 have built in Jfet driven DI`s which sound great with any instrument you throw at it and they also have two separate gain stages built in for coloring your sound giving a nice vintage vibe.
These gain circuits mimic some great preamps of old and are analog. You can add tons of drive, saturation and dirt if you want.

I needed 8 more preamp channels and choose the asp800 mainly because of the "Iron" and "HMX" options on 1 and 2 channels.
This unit sounds great and the "Iron" and "HMX" makes it even better by allowing some tone control, I've been using it a lot on overheads with great results. I'm using it along with my Clarett 8PreX as a slave connected by ADAT optical cable.
Both the preamps and the A/D converter sound very clean and balanced with a very fast transient response.
The only thing I don't like about this unit is the lack of an on/off switch and the gain knobs feel a bit cheap which I don't understand as the "Mosfet Drive" and "Magnetic Drive" on channels 1 and 2 feel way better.
Overall this unit is a great deal and well worth the price.