MOTU is now shipping the 8pre-es, a 52-channel Thunderbolt/USB audio interface for Mac, Windows and iOS featuring eight mic inputs in a single rack space, ESS Sabre32 DAC technology on eight balanced outputs, low latency drivers, DSP mixing/effects and a feature set closely matching MOTU’s recent 828es.
“The 8pre-es combines advanced engineering from our flagship 8M interface with ground-breaking features from the new 828es,” says Jim Cooper, Director of Marketing at MOTU. “The result is eight superb, transparent mic inputs with all the latest features you want for desktop studio production.”
Each mic input delivers -129 dBu EIN, 118 dB dynamic range and remote control for individual gain/pad/48V phantom power. ESS Sabre32 DAC technology delivers 123 dB dynamic range on eight balanced, DC-coupled quarter-inch (TRS) outputs and the same proven audio quality as MOTU’s flagship 1248.
Control room features include a built-in talkback mic with front panel “Talk” button and “A/B” monitor select, mute and sum-to-mono buttons for the chosen monitor outputs.
The 8pre-es delivers low round-trip latency (RTL) performance as low as 1.6 ms at 96 kHz over Thunderbolt (and 1.9 ms over USB). Advanced features include word clock I/O, two banks of optical I/O (with one bank switchable to stereo TOSLink ), two front-panel headphone jacks, USB audio class compliant firmware for connection to iOS devices (with a standard camera adapter sold separately), new Touch Console web app control from any mobile device, flexible matrix-style routing and splitting, stand alone mixing with Wi-Fi control and AVB-TSN audio networking for system expansion.
The 8pre-es is now shipping. Price is $1,195 USD.
