Focusrite RedNet 1
An eight-channel converter that treats Ethernet cable as the new analog snake, with a polished aluminum faceplate and a spec sheet to match.
Overview
There is very little to look at on the front of the RedNet 1. It has a polished aluminum faceplate, a row of single LED multi-color meters, a switch toggling operation between +18 and +24 dBu, and a handful of status lights. The back is where the work happens: two DB25 multi-pair connectors for eight channels of analog in and out, plus a single RJ45 Ethernet jack. No word clock connector, no AES, no optical. Just analog on one side and a network cable on the other. The box is built around Dante, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else.
The RedNet 1 is an eight-channel, 24-bit A-D and D-A converter built around Audinate's Dante audio-over-IP protocol. Focusrite positioned it as the entry point to a modular networked system. The company's own documentation describes RedNet as a complete audio network sans DAW, scalable to fit specific needs, taking advantage of a computer's networking strengths. Mix (March 2013, p.81) described the pitch this way: RedNet interfaces to any DAW with up to 128 workstation I/O channels at 24/96 for every RedNet PCIe interface card in the computer, expandable as needs demand. The converter is one piece of that. The PCIe card, the switches, and the Cat-6 are the rest.
Focusrite published these numbers for the RedNet 1: a dynamic range of -119 dB, A-weighted. Frequency response within ±0.15 dB across 20 Hz to 20 kHz. THD at 0.001%. Pro Audio Review (October 2013, p.38) listed those figures alongside a street price of $2,000, and noted the converters share Cirrus Logic chips with the RedNet 2, the 16-channel sibling that doubles the channel count and the DB25 count for $3,000 street. The reviewer's impression was of converters that felt "flat - reference grade with no hype and no color." That is praise if flat is what you want.
Pro Audio Review (October 2013, p.39) said the RedNet system sounds "full, flat, smooth and musical," and called the converters "world-class neutral at 96 kHz." The same review drew a line at 192 kHz. The reviewer stated he does not recommend the RedNet converters at that rate, which is a candid admission in an otherwise enthusiastic writeup. The review also flagged minor operational quirks: an occasional peak indicator that wouldn't clear, and the need to reboot when changing sample rates. Both were said to be addressable through software updates. Those flaws matter more in a live rack than in a studio.
The routing is where the RedNet 1 earns its keep. The Killers' systems engineer Philip Reynolds carried a RedNet 1 and a RedNet 4 on the band's 2013 tour. He used the converter to route audio to and from his analysis test system and to the front-of-house console for house music and the drones used during the encore, keeping the signal digital from the stagebox as long as possible. Mix (July 2013, p.?) reported Reynolds' assessment that RedNet "does everything I want it to do," with expandability he called endless. It turns a rack of converters into a network node, and a network node can be anywhere a Cat-6 cable reaches.
The limits show up at the system level. The RedNet 1 is a converter, not an interface. There's no preamp, no headphone output, no monitoring section. Pro Audio Review (October 2013, p.39) noted that the RedNet line could use more hardware options, specifically two- or four-channel converters and "maybe even a mic pre or two and a headphone output (with selectable source)" for temporary setups and smaller users. The RedNet 4 covers the preamp side of that gap. The RedNet 1 does not. A typical 24-channel RedNet system, the same review calculated, comes in around $10,000 once you've assembled a RedNet 1, a RedNet 2, a RedNet 3 for digital I/O, at least one RedNet 4, and a PCIe card.
For a multi-room facility, that math works. Pro Audio Review (October 2013, p.39) argued that RedNet makes "perfect sense" for a multi-room recording facility. Wire the building with Cat-6, deploy several RedNet 2s, add a RedNet 4 and a RedNet 1, and Dante's patch-and-recall workflow lets any room become an iso. For a project studio, the same review conceded, RedNet is "more powerful than most project studios currently require."
The minimal front panel is a deliberate design choice. This is a box meant to disappear into a rack and be managed from software. The +18/+24 dBu switch is the one concession to hands-on operation. It lets the converter sit correctly in either a pro-level or a hotter operating environment without a menu dive. The LED meters are single multi-color and functional. Collectors and engineers who've owned RedNet gear tend to describe the build as solid and the workflow as the point. Dante Controller and RedNet Control do the actual work.
On the name: the RedNet 1 shares branding with the Red 1, Red 2, Red 3, Red 7, and Red 8, Focusrite's earlier Red range of mic preamps, equalizers, and compressors. The RedNet series is a networked converter line rather than a modular analog rack, and the shared "Red" name is a family resemblance rather than a technical through-line. A RedNet 1 won't behave like a Red 1. Its job is conversion and transport, not tone shaping.
The RedNet 1 has no deep collector's market and no long repair history. It's a professional tool from the 2010s, and its value is tied to the health of the Dante ecosystem and the availability of the PCIe card that connects it to a computer. The converter itself is solid, neutral and well measured. For a networked studio, it's an eight-channel building block at a street price that undercuts much of the competition. For anyone who just needs eight channels of analog I/O in a single rack space, it's more than the job calls for.
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