ssp3, other than the crash you mention, how do you like the Metric Halo?
I like it very much. It is sort of swiss army knife for me. Wordclock, Adat, AES/EBU, 96kHz... Converters are of decent quality, but, of course, not in the highest league of Pacific Microsonics, Meitner or Grimm.
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Many people use it in live setups and in mastering studios.
Rebadged versions vere also sold under Sonic Studio (former Sonic Solutions) brand name.
Very flexible internal routing, although way too complicated for my taste and my needs. What I also don't like is that phantom powering is activated by software. If not careful, one can easily damage his/her precious ribbon mic by mistake or when in a hurry. But yes, Metric Halo is the best and at the same time not the most expensive FireWire AD/DA that one can get.
And do you happen to know if they're compatible with OS9 even if they've had all firmware updates and such installed?
This is somewhat complicated. I can only speak about 2882 or ULN-2, don't know about the other models.
Original, non 2d upgraded units will regain full functionality in OS9, if flashed back to old firmware.
2d card equipped units will have only limited functionality in OS9.
2d card equipped units can not use old, OS9 compatible firmware.
Limited functionality means that all input/output streams will work, but internal patchbay will not. This is because the old OS9 version of MIO Console app does not know how to configure "new" DSP on 2d cards.
MH converters can be flashed back to any firmware. All firmwares and flashers are available on MH website.
2d card equipped units can be brought back to original, pre 2d state by removing the 2d card and installing back the original bridge board (2882 and ULN-2) and Adat board (2882 only). ULN-2 will lose the Adat functionality in that way.
Of course, this will be possible only if the original owner upgraded his unit to 2d and kept the old bridge and Adat boards.
If the unit was bought already as "2d Expanded", then the only chance is to try to get the old bridge and Adat boards from MH support.
As far as I can tell it's the most "high end" Firewire interface you can get for OS 9, and only the highest conversion quality is good enough for my weird noise doodles.
Word!
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