Does it make click sound when muting / unmuting?
I think I did aggregate with Roland and RME, wasn’t issueless, had to mess with drivers and some settings but at the end it worked.
Wasn’t solid solution anyway, that feeling when „anything could go wrong anytime“.
Apart from potential other problems: Aggregating devices increases latency. When working just with the Big Six you would usally use direct monitoring – listen to the desk’s analog output while recording – and that’s the best way to deal with latency anyway, it just wouldn’t matter. With aggregating devices you would need to monitor through the DAW (at least for sources connected to the second device) with increased latency.
yes… usually I aggregate for “silent” recorder mode to get more channels, and all monitoring happens on analog side, however yeah, some latency issues could happen, so better check after in DAW and maybe fix timing if needed. It works, but I would not use it as permanent solution, only in some cases when you really need those channels…
RME alone works quite good and fast enough for thru daw monitoring… and midi clock sync is good, just a little delay compensation in daw needed like 15-20ms… with SLL aggregate I guess it would not be as reliable and fluid…
I prefer Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback for aggregating. It’s a lot more flexible, and it never crashes–unlike the Audio Midi Setup app.
Just received mine. I can confirm that it has all the issues mentioned above: the DC level on the ADCs (around ~-70dB, goes to -105dB with Ableton’s DC correction). This is not much of an issue for me.
It also has the power supply issue: I noticed that a couple of instruments were noisy (they were not on the previous mixer). Initially I though that it was my “Make Noise Strega” 
because it sounds like it with “activation” about half way. But the Strega was off. Then I went to hunt for ground loops, and as noon as I put my ear close to all the PSUs of my setup, I could hear exactly the same audible noise, which was coming from the Big SiX’s PSU. I have opened at Ticket at SSL, I hope they can replace it with one that does not have that issue. Otherwise, the Big SiX seems well thought out.
You guys might want to check this out I did a review on it. I hope this helps
nice review!
thank you
nice review indeed…
do you really believe AD/DAs are on the same level as your older Apollo interface (which was quite good)?
Both compressors (channel and bus ) sounds quite good. Channel comp should be very useful on vocal, bass, some guitars and live instruments, but do you think they will be useful on more “techno”, “electronic” / drum / faster attack material?
I have had the Audient ID44 and I was not impressed by the converters they were just fine, my metric halo 2882 sounded much better and the sound is much more open
Well I would hope so. Metric Halo are in a whole different price bracket. If there was no difference I would be worried.
I bought a new power supply (XP Power, “medical grade”), with the same specs, and it seems to have solved the problem. It also reduced low-frequency noise somewhat. Here is a sonogram from the same channel and settings powered with the new PSU (left) and the original one (right).
SSL made a great decision to put an external, and fairly easy to find, PSU ! But they were probably a bit unlucky with the supplier. With the current covid restrictions, doing quality control in China must be close to impossible. I would have paid maybe 1k more for it to be made in the UK. Quality control is better when the engineers can visit the production line. Nothing wrong with Chinese brands making products in China though!
Great, I might try this as well. I got a replacement power supply from SSL yesterday (same brand and everything) and switched it and am still having the same problem. Do you have a link to the power supply you used?
Sorry to hear that, you would have thought that they would test it before sending it, knowing that the batch may have an issue… I bought the ALM120PS24 from XP power. There are versions with and without chassis ground connection. Not sure which is best in which context, maybe someone can help here. I just got a “medical” one (70$), because I figured they may undergo a bit more testing, but there are less expensive ones (50$) that are probably just as good.
Still, I am a bit surprised by these power supply failures, I engineered some power supplies in the past, and I remember you had to make official tests, costing ~50k, and if they fail, you have pay again. You can skip the test by signing that you take responsibility, but, as the damage can be massive (e.g. fire), I don’t know anyone who would risk it.
Thanks! It looks like the one with the shell grounded is the type they used since it is an IEC 320-C14 connection for the input.
Edit: after looking at the specs for a few different choices for equivalent power supplies it looks like you chose a pretty good one, I might go the exact same route and report back.
Could you please post a link? My Big Six is finally on it’s way – and as sad as this is – buying a better PSU might be a better solution than asking SSL to swap theirs and receiving a similar one.
I PMed you a link. It looks like parts shortages etc. might be affecting power supplies as well and stock is low everywhere with lead times in the 50+ week range. Ugh.
Edit: If anyone else is interested in trying a better power supply I looked through a lot of data sheets and the other option that looked the best (along with the one sanbruno mentioned that is out of stock everywhere) was the Delta MDS-090AAS24 BA and there are about 50 of them in stock at digikey: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/delta-electronics/MDS-090AAS24-BA/3909356
I also ordered one of these and will report back.
Thanks a lot! I just received my Big Six. The good news: The PSU is not humming at all. Either I’m lucky or it might also depend on the frequency of the power grid (I’m in Berlin.)
On the low frequency (DC) noise: Is there a way that we can measure it in a comparable way in order to compare the amounts and decide whether swapping the PSU might make a difference?
Hi rklem, I did some measurements and they are two separate issues. The noisy power supply I had did have some extra low frequency noise, mostly below 100Hz, but this is unrelated to the DC offset issue. With the new PSU, the DC offset is still there (but not the low f noise), but it could even be considered good design: best to remove the DC at mastering, so that you add low-frequency phases just once?
For anyone who may want to get a new PSU, in Europe, you can get them at: rs-components, distrelec, farnell, reichelt. And Mouser and Digikey ship them worldwide.
With respect to floating shell or grounded shell, I don’t know whether floating shell would be same, worse or better. Maybe someone from SSL could discuss?
The new Mod Dwarf pedals also had some PSU-related noise issues. There, it turned out that the answer was moving from grounded power supplies to double-isolated ones, but I don’t know if you’ll find the same here.
