BIOS: Technology Means Business

TerraTec’s wide range of computer products have graced the digital pages of BIOS for years, but only recently have we caught wind of the company's pro-audio solutions. While being one of the biggest PC soundcard manufacturers in Germany during the late 1990s, the company is best known for its PCI cards. Now it’s trying its hand a pro-audio with the help of the well-known German audio company SPL, which co-operated on the analogue circuitry design of the PHASE X24 FW reviewed here - specifically the mic preamps.

TerraTec's PHASE X24 FW external FireWire soundcard is a ‘professional’ version of the company’s PHASE 24 FW. Featuring a solid range of connection options and FireWire technology housed in an attractive and compact aluminium chassis, the device is an excellent choice for laptop-based musicians looking to improve their onboard audio solution.

Sporting two front-mounted analogue inputs with switchable 48-Volt phantom power, four outputs, digital I/O, MIDI I/O, insert jacks and gain knobs, the PHASE X24 FW (£250) is a relatively well equipped all-round studio interface for discerning users. There’s no fancy LED display, unlike Motu's UltraLite 10x14 FireWire Audio Interface (£495), but it’s a lot cheaper and comes with Steinberg’s excellent Cubase LE and WaveLab lite 2.5, and Native Instruments’ Traktor DJ software.

The two combination jacks on the front panel of the external housing accept 6.3mm (1/4-inch) jack plugs for instruments such as electric guitars and basses, as well as XLR connectors for microphones. Equipped with status and clip LEDs, the input levels are individually adjustable using two dedicated gain knobs. On demand, 48-Volt phantom power can be assigned separately to each channel.

Invented in the mid-1960s and standardised shortly thereafter, phantom power is a widely-used method for supplying current to devices over signalling cables, especially audio. This is most often used for condenser microphones, and occasionally microphones of other types. In addition to powering the circuitry of a microphone, in traditional (DC-polarised) condenser microphones the phantom powering directly or indirectly supplies the voltage used for polarising the microphone’s transducer element (‘capsule’).

It is called ‘phantom’ powering because the supply voltage is effectively invisible to any balanced microphones which do not happen to use it. A balanced signal consists only of the differences in voltage between two signal lines; phantom powering places the same DC voltage on both signal lines of a balanced connection. This is in marked contrast to another, slightly earlier method of powering known as ‘parallel powering’ or ‘T-powering’ (from the German term Tonaderspeisung), in which DC was overlaid directly onto the signal in differential mode.

With four line outs (two main and two monitor), the PHASE X 24 FW produces clear signals which are easily sent loss-free to outboard devices. Boasting 24-bit/192kHz signal processing and 111dB signal-to-noise ratio, the device also delivers the fidelity musicians have come to expect. What’s more, two front-panel inserts accommodate external effectors, for instance, compressors and other signal processors.

An adjustable headphones output, digital interface (optical) for S/PDIF, AC3 and DTS formats, and a MIDI I/O round out the range of connection options. Courtesy of the two FireWire ports at the rear of the device, all data is sent fast and latency-free. All cords and adapters required to connect the device are included, including a 6- to 4-pin FireWire adapter and handy protective bag. Terratec even supplies a mains adapter, should your laptop only have a 4-pin FireWire port (only 6-pin FireWire ports are powered).

The PHASE X24 FW is easy to install and a breeze to configure thanks to the solid drivers and easy-to-use control panel (we had no problems using it with Cubase SX 3.0 or SoundForge 8). It’s compatible with both Mac and PC, although Windows users need to install drivers. Mac’s Core Audio technology recognises the unit natively, although you’ll still need to install the control panel software to get the best from the unit.

The control panel software enables comprehensive control of levels and routing, with each of the three pairs of outputs able to derive their signal directly from internal or external analogue or digital sources, or via the simple Mixer page. Source is selected using individual dropdown selectors on the Routing section for each pair of outputs.

The robust unit performs favourably compared to similar units such as Edirol’s FA66 (£230) and M-Audio’s FireWire 410 (£250) in terms of mic preamp quality. The features, specification and price are all very similar between the devices, although M-Audio’s unit offers more outputs. If you don’t need preamps, you should even consider TerraTec Producer’s Phase 24FW (£150). Nevertheless, it's still an excellent value offering. [8]

[Best Audio Hardware Pricing UK]
[Best Audio Hardware Pricing US]