There are few things that would make me consider upgrading. 
1) Are the preamps any better?
2) Are the effects any better?
3) Is the recorded sound any better when both at16 bit?
4) Sonically, can you hear much of a difference when recording at 24 bit compared to 16 bit with the AW16?

Aside from the advantage of more tracks, is there any thing else that stands out on the AW2400 in terms of better quality of sound??

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

Automation is the biggest difference. If the AW16G is your first still camera, the AW2400 is a motion picture camera. Automation is another entire level of music production and by far the biggest STAND OUT advantage.

Expansion options are also huge… the AW2400 features a Yamaha mini YGDAI expansion (which means you can add additional I/O including mLAN, ADAT, etc., etc.

Yes the preamps are better
Yes the effects are better
The 3rd question is subjective… and depends on other factors than simply the machine…
Yes the difference between 24-bit recording and 16-bit recording is quite noticable - but this is also subjective - it depends on the music you are recording. On crunchy heavy metal trash music it is not a big deal… but music with silences, acoustic music, it is huge.

You can record 24 tracks with 16-bit.
You can record only 12 tracks with 24-bit but typically it is acoustic recordings that will benefit… If you are doing “live” acoustic recording you will appreciate the benefits of 24-bit. Otherwise, it is not like 16-bit is something inferior… but when you have the right situation for 24-bit, you use it. So when you have session that can be accomplished in 12 tracks and can benefit from the extra word length, 24-bit is very, very effective.

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

Thanks Bad Mister,

The reason I ask about the sonic differences, is that I had an opportunity to work with a Roland 2480. To my ears the sound quality was quite noticably better than the AW16. No matter what I tried, I could not get the AW16 to come close. The 2480 seemed to have a bigger or wider stereo image even at 16 bit.

There was an article in Recording Magazine ( or EQ ) and they compared several units. They stated the AW2400 & the Roland 2480 were very similar sonically.

I noticed that the AW2400 price has been reduced to $1599.
This either means a new model is about to arrive or Yamaha is going to follow suit to Roland and discontinue their DAW stand alone units. 

Can you comment on this??

Pete

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

Oh yeah...I forgot to mention that you were mentioned in the article as Yamaha’s rep to demonstrate the 2400.

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

The 2400 is a second generation machine over the 16g and Yamaha learned a lot from the 4416, 2816 and 16g that they brought to the table in producing the 1600 and 2400.

16 Bit recording vs 24 bit recording is a tricky question. As Bad Mr points out, it has a lot to do with the music you are trying to capture as to whether you will be able to appreciate the differences, but on certain music 24bit is simply a must. What you need to balance with the 2400 is the slight compromise in track count between 16bit and 24bit recording (which the 4416 doesn’t have BTW so a s/h 4416 may also be worthy of consideration - that is a wonderful machine, but it does lack the USB2 file transfer capability)

The 2400 has a better mic pre amp section and a better eq/effects section by all accounts.

THe Roland machines are also very good so if you are looking to get a standalone HD recorder workstation then you may need to look at both, and include the Korg equivalents and others out there.

Hope these thoughts help

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

The AW2400 is discontinued, I got this info from Yamaha Music Gulf FZE (UAE). Does anyone knows about that?

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

It seems the products goes hand in hand like this:

Motif = AW4416 & AW16G
Motif ES = AW2400 & AW1600
Motif XS = new pair of 32-track and 16-track multitrackers with built in mLan, USB2, better effects and tiltable color screen, new green outfit and few minor updates, some good some bad.

Information is confirmed by my crystal ball…

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

That’s right, Yamaha do the exact procedure, but hope the successor of the AW2400 will be something better to be stacked up ot Roland’s MV8800.

Re: AW2400 vs AW16G

It is also possible that with tighter integration between hardware (Motif XS) and software (Cubase AI4) that an updated pale metallic green AW may not be on the cards . . .

Cheers