Focusrite ISA430/220 A/D Card
for the ISA430 or ISA220 (NOT compatible with ISA430 MkII)

The Focusrite ISA430/220 A/D Card is an optional add-on for either the ISA430 or ISA220. At the heart of the A/D card is a high quality 24bit 96KHz Delta Sigma converter running at 128KHz over-sampling for maximum conversion performance. Focusrite proprietary designs are used for all internal clocking and phase lock loop circuits to guarantee the absolute minimum jitter possible, whether free-running or locked to wordclock.

The ISA220's optional A/D is stereo and allows for inputs from internal (post-processing and external sources simultaneously giving a clean, protected, high-quality path to stereo digital media.  Thus, with the Stereo A/D card installed, the ISA220 can be used as a high quality mono/stereo tracking converter, or at mix down as a stereo converter channel for routing complete mixes to digital media.  Two ISA220 Session Packs can take full advantage of the one A/D converter, with one ISA220 acting as the master and the other as the slave.

Just paying for the PCB and circuitry, without any additional casing and metalwork, affords a considerable reduction in cost whilst maintaining an extremely high level of sonic clarity. However, the benefits from installing Focusrite’s optional ADC extend far beyond the obvious financial advantages and space saving issues. As most converters use the same chips, it is the quality of the surrounding analogue circuitry that makes the difference. This is the reason why the ISA ADC is unrivalled in terms of both price and performance.

Focusrite’s R and D team have carefully considered the organisation of the PCB layout and grounding, ensuring that the S/N ratio and linearity of the converter are optimised. The noise floor and THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) are kept to a minimum by the nature of the power supply and the analogue input design, with analogue filtering positively effecting the sound of the digital noise.

In addition, the supporting circuitry around the ADC (dealing with data transmission, bit reduction and incoming word clock) has been carefully structured, as it influences the converter through heat, power supply and data jitter. One of the most important aspects of the ADC is the clock design, as this determines the linearity of the digital output. All Focusrite ADCs are designed to have incredibly low jitter figures (44.1kHz-192kHz < 20 psec) which significantly improve the quality of the sound.

With the converters housed within the analogue units, the signal path is kept as short as possible, having no unnecessary analogue connections to the inputs of recording equipment. In addition, Focusrite units do not contain extraneous clocks or other sources of digital noise, unlike so many digital desks and multi-I/O DSP configurations.

Focusrite ISA430/220 A/D Card Specifications:
-Connectors:
  -AES/EBU: XLR
  -S/PDIF: RCA Phono and Optical
-Bit depths: 16, 20 or 24 bit
-Frequency options: 44.1, 48, 88.2 & 96kHz,
-Clock options: Standard or ‘256 x’ (Super Clock)
-SNR: 113dB A weighted @ 24bit
-0dBfs = +22dBu
-Dithering:Adaptive