Among the 100 Merging Technologies’ Horus networked audio converters sold since shipping in April 2012, is one used in several months’ recording by the Swiss specialist recording company, JDN.

Jean-Daniel Noir and Marie Delorme (freshly graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris) added a Horus to the upgrade of their Pyramix hardware to the latest Merging fan-less computers, allowing them to work in the same room as the performing musicians – their recordings are often of baroque instrument, notorious for their low acoustic levels.

Recording with the musicians means monitoring on high-quality headphones. ‘I asked Merging to pay attention to the headphone amplifier when Horus was being developed,’ Noir says. ‘These often sound poor on other devices and I must say that they listened to me because it is really outstanding. It also saves me taking a separate amp and all the cables and power supply.’

JDN makes recordings all around Europe and the new computer chassis and Horus fit this requirement well. However, portability is only valuable if the piece of equipment offers the best quality and here Horus delivers: ‘I have other top-grade preamps and converters in my inventory, so it is easy for me to compare these to Horus,’ Noir continues. ‘We quickly found that the mic preamps were of a very high standard and because we have so many more channels in Horus, we save a lot of connections and cables.

‘Using excellent microphones, we found that Horus accepts a huge dynamic. We have recorded many projects which have varied greatly both musically and in location and Horus has proven to be very versatile. Having AES/EBU, Madi, Ravenna and analogue all in one is a huge bonus.’

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