It don’t get much better

[Alan Tubbs]

Had the chance to review the new interface from Neumann, the MT 48.  It is a modified Anubis from Merging Technologies and part of their house and mastering system.  It comes with AES67 for Ethernet such connections.  And  it is a step up from  any other interface I’ve used.  136 dB signal to noise ratio and 78 dB gain on the mic preamps.   It has the clarity to give you pristine replication and show off the slightly thickening sound you get from class A, transformer coupled front end.  Even using their own pure pres the sound doesn’t come out serial, just clean.

Two pres, two line ins and 4 out.  Plus 2 separate headphones out, and all 4 of these stereo outs can have their own mixes and excellent effects package from Merging Tech.  In fact, all outs share those same channel strips and you can record both the clean and effected mixes to your DAW for parallel compression.  

You basically get a complete hardware digital mixer with big board monitoring controls built in.  You can run this with your DAW or bypass  it and have practically 0 latency thru the unit.  With the clean effects.  There is even a setting to run the single ADAT signals straight out, skipping the DAW again to run out to your analog hardware.  Like a tape deck.  And the kicker is a touchscreen monitor to handle all the MT 48 functions in a logical layout.  Much better than my DAW control via a large touchscreen.

You might prefer a Burl ADDA sound, or any of the other top notch units, but they aren’t better,  just different.  And the Neumann lists for less than $2000.  Admittedly that is pricey, but since the new Cakewalk offering will be a professional DAW(s), you can hook it up with a top notch interface too.

A complete review will appear in a couple of  months in Tape Op.  and to squash that argument Neumann didn’t “pay” me for the review.  That is a simpleton’s argument.  Why would anyone even remotely professional want to waste one or two months reviewing a POS product.  I asked to review this product because it seemed intriguing.  And it certainly met my expectations, although i didn’t think it would sound obviously better than any other home studio interface I’ve auditioned.

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[jesse g]

The Merging Anubis was much more expensive, but it was indeed impressive.
 

Edited October 28, 2023 by jesse g

[Alan Tubbs]

Pretty much the same look.  The software on the screen is different and in brilliant color.  And there is ADAT squeezed onto the rear.