# Old 'n' Busted: Meet New Hotness... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2009-01-20 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2009/01/old-n-busted-meet-new-hotness/ [![Old 'n' Busted: Meet New Hotness...](https://analogindustries.com/images/ext/farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/3214167118_3d6afb4d82.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisrandall/3214167118/) Well, my Rosetta is neither old, nor busted, but in my searching the Interwebs for solutions to various scenarios, I came across a Mytek 8x192 for sale, in PDX, natch. It was at a price too good to pass up, so I popped up to Portland and grabbed it as soon as O-Dog was done with his speechifying. I guess I don't need a Rosetta 800 any more, nor do I specifically need a Dangerous D-Box (integral summing buss, bitches!) I can't report on whether this is better, worse, or the same as the Rosetta (I assume the first) as I haven't yet rigged it to my Lynx. Cabling issues abound. But suffice to say that I'm currently an extremely happy camper vis-a-vis my conversion. I imagine various thoughts will be forthcoming once I've gotten it integrated in to my system. ## Comments (18) **boobs** (2009-01-20): nice score. mytek's are great if the opinions are even close to reality. **synthetic** (2009-01-20): Looks cool, post an example of the summing mixer if it blows your mind. If you're still looking to replace the Central Station with something, the SPL monitor controllers look very nice. Inexpensive, but I hear nothing but good things about the sound quality. The surround monitor controller was only around $800! I might be upgrading soon. **MitchK1989** (2009-01-20): I wish I had the money to burn for high end recording gear. As is, I'm looking at finally switching away from M-audio shite by getting an echo audiofire 12 for tons of line ins and outs so I can at least buy standalone mic pres. **Chris Randall** (2009-01-20): Okay, I got this thing hooked up, and both in speakers and headphones it is obvious that it is better than the Rosetta. Well... I don't know if "better" is the word. Warmer, maybe? Chunkier? It is a more pleasing sound to my ears, but maybe that's because it is more expensive. Breaking out a track to stems results in the usual opening (obvious in headphones but not really in speakers, as people that do this know full well). So I guess I'm gonna be looking for a buyer for my Rosetta 200 soon. $1100 sounds about right. -CR **beauty pill** (2009-01-20): For anyone reading this (CR aside, who no longer needs one), the Dangerous D-Box is truly, truly a badass tool. A purchase you can't regret. The sound quality is just incredible. If you use it with great converters, you're just... psyched. You will never want to mix wholly in the computer again, if you ever did. - c **Chris Randall** (2009-01-20): Truthfully, I'm sitting here reflecting on this, and I may get the D-Box anyhow. I need an input switcher regardless, and I'd also like to have insert points between the DA and the sum, although I don't currently have anything to insert there. ;-) However, now that I've bought all the snakes I need to actually use this damn thing and all my other AES-based gear, I no longer have the stomach to drop $800 on a patchbay, god knows how much on patch cables, etc. etc. ad nauseum. I've got all the D/A hooked up now; I'll be using the Rosetta for A/D for pending projects until the cables arrive, then we'll see what we can stand. -CR **boobs** (2009-01-20): dbox is a great piece of gear. i'm w/you on the cables/patchbay though. i have a jillion cables everywhere and a cheapo patchbay. i added up what it would cost to upgrade to a TT bay w/new snakes to everything and it was over $5k. f that. maybe something from coleman would work for you as an input switcher/monitor controller? then you can stick w/your DA in the mytek. the DA in the dbox is really great though and it's built solidly w/quality parts. no probs so far. coleman is supposed to be great too.. but i'm sure you're aware of all that... **drewkeys** (2009-01-21): Total score. I know I'm not a kid anymore when I get more excited about conversion than just about any other gear. **puffer** (2009-01-21): I followed your twitter link for the product page: Nice. At first I was wondering, 'when did that get released?' Then, 'Oh. I see why that's off my radar.' ;-) This year, saving my pennies, and if I'm still at it by Q4 I'm cashing it in on upgrading to rest of my i/o up to the level of my Lynx L22. **musicmachinemaker** (2009-01-21): "It is a more pleasing sound to my ears..." isn't that what a Big Ben is supposed to do with a rosetta ? Rosetta 800 or mytek , those d-subs are a pain and cost too much. You'll need d-subs for a/d - d/a - aes .... 3 or 4 of those cables. I'm looking at a second hand rosetta 800 and an argument are those d-subs. **Chris Randall** (2009-01-21): @musicmachinemaker: yeah, you don't even want to know what the cables cost me. I'm of the opinion that the convertor itself is value-added-content for DB25->XLR snake manufacturers. To address your other comment, the Rosetta 200 and the Big Ben have the same clock in them, according to comments Max has made on Gearslutz. The Rosetta 800? Adam read all about that, so he could answer that question. The Mytek's clock is, sorry to say, vastly superior. And it has six (!!!) WC outputs. I'm so happy, as I have five WC devices, and now I can clock them all with internal termination, and I don't need to worry about any T connectors or anything. One cable, one device, have a nice day. Luckily, I have a lot of BNC. -CR **musicmachinemaker** (2009-01-21): The rosetta 200/800 does not have the C777 clock from the big ben. the 16x thingies do. **beauty pill** (2009-01-21): This was a brief debate within SSonya as well. We have an AD16x/DA16x Symphony rig and a few floating Rosettas. I thought the Rosetta 200 had the C777 clock but the Rosetta 800 did not. Devin thought only the 16xs had the C777 and that the Rosetta 200 and 800 were of equal quality. My recollection was he won this particular debate, but I'm not sure we confirmed it. - c **musicmachinemaker** (2009-01-21): Apogee clearly said to me in a mail that the clocking of the rosetta's were very good but the C777 from the big ben was the best they could offer and are an improvement over the rosetta 200 design. Neither the 200 or 800 feature the C777 logo in the front. There are many reports (commercial and user review) that the rosetta 200 and 800 improve when used with the big ben. cheers **beauty pill** (2009-01-21): Our Rosettas are clocked via Symphony to the DA16x as master, so the matter has never particularly interested me. I don't know where I got the idea that the 200 was a class above the 800 in clocking. Did I make that up in a dream? Knowing me, it's possible. For mastering, we have a couple of other fancy-pants converters but frankly I don't feel the difference between them and the Symphony system would matter in any other circumstance. The Apogees are fantastic. - c **musicmachinemaker** (2009-01-21): mytek having 5 WC is almost as much as the bigben.. or 1 less. **Chris Randall** (2009-01-21): Why did I have it in my head that the 200 and 800 had different clocks? I know I read that somewhere. In any case, you guys can talk amongst yourselves about that, because the 200 clocked from the Mytek sounds markedly better to my ears than the 200 clocked internally; since I have empirical evidence right in front of me, my interest in this subject has ceased. ;-) -CR **D' MacKinnon** (2009-01-23): 200 and 800 share the same clock, DA16 has the same as Big Ben. You can always get a Big Ben + 800 (which is probably what I'm going to get next) but Mytek is still going to be better than that from what I've read.