Back In Business

Just when I was about to give up on receiving my replacement device from M-Audio, it shows up. I was totally ready to drop the idea of keeping this thing, and buying something else (and eBaying the new device once it arrived). Fortunately, I didn't have to go that far. :) So I am now the proud owner of an M-Audio MobilePre rather than the Transit. Unfortunately, I now lack 24-bit audio, but I've gained a bus-powered preamp. I think the latter feature is far more useful for my purposes, anyway. I must say that this device is miles above the Transit in terms of build quality. It is quite a bit heavier and bigger, and it also feels very solid. Plugging it in did not cause any sort of crash, which was a nice thing to see. It is clearly marked on the box as being Class-Compliant, and that makes me happy because I don't have to depend on any strange drivers. Listening to iTunes for a few minutes with the MobilePre, I noticed that it sounded better than the Transit. I'm not entirely sure, but I think they may have included a headphone amplifier for monitoring. The headphone jack even has its own volume control! Certainly, it sounded beefier than the Transit and the Built-In iBook audio. This is a good thing for when I play around with Reason and Ableton Live (both included in the package!). I have yet to use it for any FuzzMeasure measurements, and will have to report on that soon. Once I get home, I shall plug my measurement mic in and see how well some measurements work out before I pass a final judgement. There will certainly be a beating put on the device this week, and I hope to have 1.1 polished for the release real soon. The latest bleeding-edge beta is still available to those interested here. I should probably get around to posting these newer versions to the FuzzMeasure download page, and post them individually.