Article Preview - Prism Sound Orpheus

Prism Sound's Orpheus interface brings the company's high–end digital conversion technology within reach of the project studio owner for the first time.

Hugh Robjohns

Photos: Mark Ewing

Prism Sound are a British manufacturer, mainly associated with very high–end digital converter technology, although they're no strangers to state–of–the–art analogue thanks to their involvement with the Maselec product range. They're not a company most would have expected to be working in project studio territory — at least, not until the launch of their new interface.

The Orpheus is a 1U, rackmounting, multi–channel Firewire audio interface with eight analogue line inputs and outputs (switchable for +4dBu or –10dBV operation), linked directly to eight Prism A–D and D–A converters. Four of the input channels also have very high–quality microphone preamps (with gain from 10 to 65dB in 1dB increments, switchable phantom power and M/S stereo decoding matrices). Moreover, the first two preamps have front–panel high–impedance DI input sockets, and can be switched to include RIAA de–emphasis so that turntables can be connected directly. The line inputs are electronically balanced, but will accept unbalanced inputs without problems, and Prism state that the Orpheus employs the same fully balanced architecture and the same isolation between analogue and digital domains as their high–end products. A second Firewire port on the rear panel enables additional Orpheus units to be daisy–chained to create larger interfaces, if required. The Orpheus also provides MIDI in and out, of course, and word clock in and out.

Drivers and control software are provided for both Windows (XP and Vista, with ASIO & WDM formats), and Mac OS 10.4 or later (for both Intel and PPC machines). The Orpheus's firmware and Control Panel software were both revised back in May, and the review model was running the latest versions (Firmware 1.02, Control Panel 1.03).

The Ins...

The Orpheus's front panel is astonishingly neat and simple in comparison to most interfaces. Apart from the two DI input sockets, there are just a few status LEDs, some very funky bar–graph meters, an assignable encoder wheel, two headphone volume pots and output sockets, and a power switch. It looks classy and elegant, and works very well; the meters will only give you a vague idea of signal levels, but your DAW (or other recorder's) metering will provide any additional resolution, should you need it.

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Article Preview - Prism Sound Orpheus

Audio & MIDI Interface [Mac/PC]