Magewell Pro Convert Audio DX

About this product

Dante carries the audio in a great many venues, studios and meeting spaces, yet there is always something that sits outside it: an analogue mixer, a laptop, a stream that has to go to another site. The Pro Convert Audio DX is the small box that joins them up. It is an audio converter linking three kinds of audio: analogue audio on ordinary sockets, USB audio to and from a computer, and audio carried over a network. Dante is a widely used system for sending audio over Ethernet between mixers, amplifiers and other equipment. The unit is a Dante-enabled, multi-format IP audio converter and capture device, dedicated to audio, and it works in both directions at once.

What goes in

• Unbalanced analogue. One 3.5 mm TRS socket carrying 2 channels.
• Balanced analogue. One 4.4 mm TRRRS socket carrying 2 channels. Balanced connections reject interference better over long cables.
• USB audio. 4 channels at 24-bit / 48 kHz from a computer. The unit is a USB Audio Class (UAC) device, which means the computer sees it as a sound device.
• Dante. It receives 8 channels of 24-bit Dante audio, unicast or multicast.
• Other network streams. Two 4-channel 16-bit audio streams at once, using SRT, NDI, RTSP, RTMP(S), MPEG-TS over UDP or RTP, or HTTP(S). That lets you bring a remote contributor or an NDI production feed into the room.

What comes out

• Unbalanced analogue. One 3.5 mm TRS socket, 2 channels.
• Balanced analogue. One 4.4 mm TRRRS socket, 2 channels.
• USB audio. 4 channels at 24-bit / 48 kHz to a computer, so you can record Dante audio in your usual software.
• Dante. It sends 8 channels of 24-bit Dante audio, unicast or multicast.
• Other network streams. Two 4-channel 16-bit audio streams at once, using SRT, NDI, RTSP, RTMP(S), or MPEG-TS over UDP or RTP.

Routing, mixing and audio quality

• A virtual audio matrix lets any analogue or IP input channel be routed and mixed into any analogue, IP or USB output. You can set this up in the Web UI from a browser, which saves a separate mixer for small jobs.
• Sample rates of 96 / 88.2 / 48 / 44.1 kHz are supported, at 16-bit or 24-bit.
• Frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz (±0.5 dB), dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio are above 100 dB, and distortion is below 0.01% at +4 dBu.
• For Dante timing the unit supports PTP (the network clock that Dante devices share) as master or slave.

Connecting your equipment

• XLR equipment. The balanced connection is a 4.4 mm socket, and two breakout cables are supplied, 4.4 mm to dual XLR male and 4.4 mm to dual XLR female, so XLR equipment connects straight away. The unit’s audio connections are analogue, USB and network, rather than AES3 (AES/EBU) digital.
• Dante networks. This model is for Dante. For an AES67 network or Icecast streaming, choose the Pro Convert AES67.
• Audio alongside video. This unit carries the audio. Video encoders are on the Pro Convert encoders page.

Power, control and size

• Power. Standard PoE (IEEE 802.3af) through the network cable, or 5 V through the USB 2.0 Type-B port from the supplied adapter (5 V / 2.1 A). Maximum consumption is about 5 W. On a PoE switch, the same cable that carries the Dante audio powers the unit.
• Control. Web UI in a browser, Magewell Control Hub for managing several units, and HTTP APIs for control systems. Dante routing can also be done in Dante Controller, and Dante Domain Manager is supported, so the unit fits the tools your Dante network already uses.
• Size. 100.9 mm × 60.2 mm × 23.3 mm, small enough to tuck beside a mixer. An L-bracket is supplied.
• Operating temperature. −10°C to 50°C.

Where it sits in the range

The Pro Convert AES67 is the same size, with the same analogue and USB connections, but it uses AES67 instead of Dante and handles one 4-channel network stream over Icecast, SRT or NDI. Choose by the audio network you already have: Dante here, AES67 there. Video encoders are on the Pro Convert encoders page.