Metric Halo LIO-8 mkIV USB Audio Interface

Product Description

The Metric Halo LIO-8 mkIV USB Audio Interface is a complete, modular, expandable recording and mixing console with world-class converters, a studio full of outboard gear and a professional Atmos capable analog monitor controller. Metric Halo's 4th generation mkIV analog and converter stages enhance the already world-class design of the LIO-8 mkIV to provide you with warm yet detailed, open and musical sound that captures and presents your work in its best light. Whether you are on location, in the studio or the mastering room, the LIO-8 mkiv has what it takes for you to get the job done. LIO-8 mkiv is built on Metric Halo’s core 3d Technology, so it interoperates seamlessly with all existing MH 3d interfaces. Since it is amazingly flexible, expandable and future-proof by design, your system always scales to meet your needs.

INTEGRATION FOR THE WIN

By implementing all the functions of a complete end-to-end signal chain solution in a single package, the LIO-8 mkiv is able to provide unprecedented capability and quality in a lightweight, low-power, single rack space unit. This integration has significant benefits in the form of reduced setup time and greater reliability, reduced cabling, weight, power consumption and cost, even as it provides unprecedented flexibility and performance. The MHLink routing and transport architecture allows you to build a system with units distributed up to 100 meters apart with no added latency.

METRIC HALO SOUND

The sound of an audio product is more than the the sum of its parts. You can’t simply look at the components used and determine how something is going to sound. Excellent audio requires careful attention to detail and the tuning of every element of the entire system; this includes the analog stages, the power system, the clock and the converter itself. As all of these interact with each other in nonlinear ways, it is the system that determines the performance, and not any of the individual parts. The A/D/A converters in the LIO-8 mkiv are DC-coupled to the analog I/O stages so they introduce extremely low phase distortion. The D/A has no low-frequency filtering. The A/D converters have an extremely low frequency DC blocking filter that calibrates the input path and removes DC offset with minimal phase shift. Every element of the design combines to give you a warm, open 3-dimensional sound that is highly revealing and yet totally natural. Metric Halo mkIV sets a new standard.

MONITORING

Monitoring is critical to the production process at every stage; you need to be able hear exactly what you are working on. Your monitor chain will be limited by the weakest link in the chain. The LIO-8 mkiv integrates a transparent digitally controlled analog monitor controller to ensure that you can connect directly to your reproduction chain without having to reduce the fidelity of your signal with an inferior monitor control system. mkIV hardware includes a relay driven shunt mute circuit on all the analog outputs that prevents transients from getting into your power amps and speakers. The mute is designed to be completely out of the circuit under normal monitoring operations. It automatically protects your monitors during power cycles and sample rate changes. The Monitor Controller in the LIO-8 mkiv provides sophisticated monitor control features that are only available in dedicated monitor controllers that surprisingly cost more than the LIO-8 mkiv.

PROCESSING

LIO-8 mkiv includes a sophisticated digital signal processing engine that is only limited by your imagination. The mixing engine and audio router built into each unit is capable of mixing 128 inputs to 64 busses at all sample rates (up to 192k) with every gain interpolated on a sample-by-sample basis. This custom dedicated mix engine utilizes the equivalent DSP power of 30 of the SHARC DSPs that were used in previous generation product (based on the 2d Card).