Anyone have the new SSL2/2+ yet?

that's its real strength for me

Dumbass question: So when you're pushing the preamps on the SL2+ hard, and its meters are showing you're out of headroom in the analog domain, does it still bring the audio into your DAW @ -18db like my Mackie 1640i*** does? Good/logical A2D engineering practices and technical considerations are one thing, but, practically speaking, not being able to really see the waveform in Ableton Live until I manually add +18db to each clip is a bummer... I'm sure if I was multi tracking a full live performance with the 1640i, and then cleaning up in PT, the small waveforms would be a non-issue with no bearing on ultimate quality of my recording once I've mixed... but... I wanna see my waveforms right away.

***I ask because your EB shows you're housing a 1640i as well.

okay, you definitely want to have things adjusted in your DAW and also NOT be clipping the converters, your ears will tell you. But the meters are just too small on the unit, one of my small gripes (not a pun). So really you're usually getting the preamp darned good before the red led in 4k setting. Its a bit of a balancing act. It really needs a trim control because the 'saturate the preamp in $k legacy mode' routine can go sideways if you're not careful. It needs concentric puts where one is gain and another is trim so you're not risking the clipping converters and you can get safely into fizz turf.... my work around for heavy dirt was to take an odyssey, a hot synth on the xlr jack, boost it up so its clipping, then roll back the SSL gain a little using it as a master control. FOr more subtle effects like one would usually use its fine just running damned hot at the gain knob.

Interestingly my MOTU has optional limiter on the 2 preamps that are set at like -0.5dBV I would guess and when I decied to clip soemthing yesterday to see how those preamps sound they allowed me to run full throttle when engaged. Also I hate to say this but I liked the overloaded sound of the no name preamp quite a bit. It really seems bland used correctly but when abused its really not too shabby.

another thing against the 2+ I'll add here... I plugged it in last night and there's actually a good bit of distortion on the headphone amp with various headphones that didn't jump out at me until now. Compared to the motu's headphone amps its pretty audibly inferior. My take is this thing is great FRONT END on the go and the monitoring was an afterthought but is tolerable. I would not mix my record on it though some premix, broad decisions can be made.... I don't mix on headphones anyway and the main outputs are clean enough. I wish I had a current focusrite here to A/B against now. There's now ay it'll outperform the MOTU monitoring with its pricey mastering covnerters and robust power supply... I have to amend my previous comments though. All the effort here was on teh front end and total mobility. And yet there's nothing wrong with it. The speaker outs are pretty clean even if the covnersion's not up to par with an interface costing 4 times as much.... its like, what do you want for this money? What's your intended usage?

UPDATE: this whole question had me bothered so I checked out the buzz a minute ago and the SSL press is that these are high end converters like in some of SSL's flagship digital products... but I don't know how those fare against the motu's covnerters as they are the converters used by a lot of mastering gear and in the newest, top of the line apogee gear... so, hmmm. Its a quagmire. I have a feeling a 2d gen will be perfectly rounded out... I suspect the power supply culd be improved, a lot will rely on your USB cable and what kind of power your computer is getting. Something like this needs to take that 5v and regulate the hell out of it, split it into multiple rails at different voltages.... then there's the addition of a trim for the preamps, they might add it in V2, and you know these sold like hot cakes, so there will be a V2. Its an excellent product for the money. V2 needs an even more robust power design, always on 4k legacy mode, none of this modern mode bullshit! Trim for easier overloading of mic amps and perhaps an improved phones amp, a switch to change impedance for different cans would be swell, something worthy of all manufacturer's attention. Putting it on a USB C type plug would be wise, give it a thudnerbolt3 mode as well as USB 3 (not 2, meh). Maybe an option for Wall or bus power as well? Want to be best in class, SSL? Address these issues. You're out in the front, but the perfect product would be more adaptable to different musician's methods in different environments and no one's doing that in 2x2 or 2x4 interface...

okay, you definitely want to have things adjusted in your DAW and also NOT be clipping the converters, your ears will tell you.

I think what's going on with my 1640i, now that I'm finally asking it to record and not just playback, is something else. As discussed elsewhere 1 2 3

I'm not a veteran studio engineer, but I've been recording to hard disk via interfaces (with and without mixers in the chain) since the 90s... this Mackie does not align with all those years of expectations set by other devices... in a bad way. I'll borrow a few interfaces from friends (how do i only have 1 interface now, after years of feeling like I had boxes of them?) and figure out how to put my frustration with this aspect of the 1640i into actual words that make sense to studio-forged LUFS-literate folks like yourself.

Anyway, sorry to hear the headphone out on the 2+ isn't as good as a rack device, but as you point out, nothing that is USB-powered is going to be able to be able to fully compete with a higher-end product that has it's own path straight to a wall outlet. There are engineering compromises that must be made, so nothing your describing is that shocking... but the high-LOD notes are very much appreciated.

I try, as soon as I try to describe things subjectively I get all idiotic and then i go listen again and change my mind... a lot of my perception of something measurable is based on mood and source material LOL I objectively know what its doing but don't know how I feel about it all the time.