Tascam US-122 MKII

Finally arrived, now plugged to a frequency generator for the break in.

Cool! 

How's the burn-in going? I can't wait to hear your turntable and tube preamp. 

Burn-in has finished today. I could do some rips now, but I won't have the new caps installed in the phono preamp before two weeks. Also I still don't have some of the caps for the solid state preamp, which I will use for subsonic frequencies removal, so I'm going to wait for all the caps to be burnt-in and installed.

Hello  Can't wait to hear your rips 

Hello  Can't wait to hear your rips 

I hope I will be able to make some rips in two or three weeks.

After some ripping, I can testify on the quality of this Tascam interface. Its recording capability of 96 kHz / 24 bit is very good, with a more than decent sound quality. The ADC works nicely, giving a detailed sound. Overall the sound suffers a bit because of the electrolytic capacitors on the audio path at the input, which give boosted mids with some less bass and highs, and a bit of harshness and daze during complex passages. Unfortunately those 4,7 uF capacitors can't be replaced with better ones, since there's no room inside the chassis. With good quality caps this Tascam would be stellar.
All in all, it has a very good quality / price ratio.

Picture of the inside:
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Did you compare it to other units?

Not directly, that is I don't have any other audio interfaces, but I have some downloaded vinyl rips made with other ones. Most of these were made with the US-144 MKII, which is its bigger brother. My rips sound generally better because my phono preamp and line preamp have better capacitors, despite those rips were made with better turntables, cartridges and phono preamps (and I'm talking about stuff three times more expensive). Otherwise, I don't think there is a big difference between the 122 and the 144, soundwise.

Comparing with other rips made with better quality audio interfaces, like Apogee Rosetta and  Korg MR-2000S, the Tascam of course is inferior, but not bad. (Keep in mind that those rips were made with stellar cartridges and phono preamp, so the comparison is not fair). I believe it does its job very well. Those interfaces are in another league, but I think that for the price, for its construction quality and features (you can plug in line, mics and guitars) the Tascam is awesome.

I have a Tascam US-200 but I rarely use it since I get better results with my laptop's soundcard...

I have a Tascam US-200 but I rarely use it since I get better results with my laptop's soundcard...

I've never seen one in person, but despite the balanced inputs, the US-200 looks like a toy when compared to the US-122 MKII, which seems to be better built. It all depends on the electronics.
Anyway, did you let it have 250 hours of break-in? This is fundamental. I didn't even try mine, before the break-in.

I've never seen one in person, but despite the balanced inputs, the US-200 looks like a toy when compared to the US-122 MKII, which seems to be better built. It all depends on the electronics.
Anyway, did you let it have 250 hours of break-in? This is fundamental. I didn't even try mine, before the break-in.

I didn't count the number of hours but I guess I surpassed those 250. I used it for some weeks and then I kept it in the basement, it's been there for many months. I may install it again and give it a second try