The 1010LT uses unbalanced connections. It does have two on board preamps (which the 1010 doesn't have). The A/D converters on the LT version will be on the PCI card and more prone to noise from your computer than on the 'full version' which has them in the rack box.

Ins and Outs on the full version are switchable between -10 and +4db.

Follow the link below for info on LT and full version:

http://www.m-audio.com

http://www.m-audio.com

I have just bought and set up a 1010 and am very happy. Have not been able to compare with the LT though. You should maybe do a rearch through the rest of the forums here as some others may alread have asked a similar question.

I had both for some time. The main difference between the two seems like the balanced/unbalanced, but as long as you don't have 25 ft. cable runs between the comp and the pre's you won't hear a difference unless you have a pretty bad RF problem. The audio quality between the two is pretty much the same....it would take a studio that was using far better interfaces than a delta 1010 to hear the difference. The extra 200 is worth it though if you are gonna rack it, and move it around, because the Lt only has a breakout cable thats like 5 inches long. So you have like 20 short little cables that you can barely read. If you're only setting it up once though i'd say screw the full version, but if you are gonna move it around a lot, the 200 is worth it.

Kswiss wrote: I had both for some time. The main difference between the two seems like the balanced/unbalanced, but as long as you don't have 25 ft. cable runs between the comp and the pre's you won't hear a difference unless you have a pretty bad RF problem. The audio quality between the two is pretty much the same....it would take a studio that was using far better interfaces than a delta 1010 to hear the difference. The extra 200 is worth it though if you are gonna rack it, and move it around, because the Lt only has a breakout cable thats like 5 inches long. So you have like 20 short little cables that you can barely read. If you're only setting it up once though i'd say screw the full version, but if you are gonna move it around a lot, the 200 is worth it.

thanks for your replies..actually this will be my first home studio experience but i want to achieve a pro sound quality in my recordings though i know its not just to sound card that makes a recording a good one; its also the preamps, mics,etc but i want to collect the good stuff one by one and use it as long as it goes so i dont want to invest money on recording hardware in every two or three years.
i ve also two other things in my mind; first, if i want to use SoundFonts in a cubase session will i be able to use my SoundBlaster Live! card with a DELTA ?! Actually a friend of mine does this with his 1010LT card; though he connects the outs of his Live! card to the mixer than sends that signal back to DELTA when he wants to read SoundFonts in his recordings. Is there any other way to do it?! Or should we use a soundfont compatible card like an E-MU desktop series to work with both audio recordings and SoundFonts efficiently?!
second, i ve read several articles here about MOTU and RME; though there are articles that compare the two cards but nobody compared a DELTA to a RME or a MOTU? Are those two cards one step ahead than DELTA series? Should we use a RME (as far as i understood RME works fine with a pc than a MOTu) rather than a DELTA if we want to get a pro quality sound?!

thanks...

I would say both RME first and then Motu are definetely an upgrade over the 1010, especially the lt. If this is your first DAW experience, you might stick with the lt though since its only
$250, and you can experiement all you want, and others might tell you differently, but you can obviously get semi- pro results out of a 1010... ADCs are by no means the biggest contributor to sound quality in a home studio. As far as using the two cards at once, delta and other interface cards use a driver type called Asio...which allows full duplex operation and lower latency rates. When cubase opens the ASIO driver, it won't let any other programs use it unless they are rewired in....at least in my experience. You can run like a mp3 player or something, but other programs requireing an ASIO driver won't work. However your friend has it working probably works for him, and that might be how it has to work for you...

K

Delta 1010 LT specs:

dynamic range: 101.5dB (D/A) (A-weighted)
99.6dB (A/D) (A-weighted)

Delta 1010 specs:

dynamic range: 114dB (A-weighted) (A/D and D/A)

signal-to-noise ratio: 114dB (typical, A-weighted)

From what I have read in the various recording forums about these two interfaces over the past few years and what the specs bear out is that the converters in the 1010 are far superior to those on the LT (which also has two cheap preamps). It is unlikely M-Audio has fooled the audio world for the past few years by charging an extra $350 for a break-out box.