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anonymous 24 February 2004

Hello,

I'm putting together a computer system for recording--PC/Windows XP. Any recommendations on soundcards? Looking for maximum flexibility as I expand, options, quality, value. Any thoughts appreciated.

Alan

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anonymous Tue, 02/24/2004 - 16:27

The lowest cost good quality soundcard I know of is the (two RCA-in, two RCA-out) M-Audio Audiophile ($149). My understanding is that it has the same AD/DA converters as the Delta 44 and Delta 66 cards. The Echo Mia is supposed to be very good as well. The M-Audio Delta 44 ($199 - $229) comes with a breakout box with four 1/4" TRS-ins and four 1/4" TRS-outs. it is a very nice card for the money.

Of course, if you want to get into the $400+ range there are even better cards made by M-Audio, MOTU, RME, Lynx...

David French Mon, 04/05/2004 - 13:13

I would also reccommend M-Audio cards; They are relatively inexpensive, have excellent stats, and are modular. Any card from the Delta series will work with any other card from the series (up to four total) in the same computer. If all you want is a good stereo in-out, the Audiophile 2496 would be a good choice. If you want more i/o, you can get 4 ins-outs with the Delta 44 or six with the Delta 66 which includes SPDIF as the 5th and 6th i/o channels. There is also the 1010 and the 1010LT if you want still more channels. If you also need a mixer/heaphone amp/pres, the Omni Studio Package is nice. It includes a Delta 66 and has a breakout box with two preamps (no frills clean sound), two headphone outs, monitor outs, effects sends (one per channel) and aux inputs. Anyway, check them out:

[url=http://www.m-audio… Delta Series[/url]

anonymous Mon, 04/05/2004 - 22:35

Before you lash out on a card, check the user forums of the main audio application you are using to ensure there are no compatability problems or other issues. I use mainly Steinberg products and their forums are full of reports of troubles with certain soundcards (the sound card manufacturers are nearly always at fault due to the quality of their drivers). Personally I use and recommend Echo products - no driver issues with any of the applications I use (SX, WaveLab, Native Instruments, Reason etc etc), low latency, great sound.

Good luck

anonymous Wed, 07/07/2004 - 23:15

Delta 1010LT audio card

I have a Delta 1010 LT audio card.

Is this a pro card? It has 2 balanced XLR, and the rest of I/O's are RCA, which I dont like. Not pro to me.

Which cards are pro?

I need 24 bit /up to 96k / ASIO / 2 or more balanced I/O.

What is better, a sound card or a rack mount audio card?

David French Thu, 07/08/2004 - 10:17

First of all, what is pro? If pro is great technical specs, stability, and compatability, then any card from the M-Audio Delta Series is pro. Delta cards support 24|96, have ASIO drivers, and most have balanced I/O. A rackmount system like the Delta 1010 is theoretically better for the reason of avoiding interference noise from the other components in the computer's case, but I use a Delta 66 and interference has never been a problem for me.

anonymous Mon, 08/23/2004 - 06:52

I have a M-audio Firewire 410. I've been very happy with it so far when it comes to recording quality. But I think you should consider two drawbacks that I discovered

1. Outputs are unbalanced (also the line inputs at the back). I think this is really annoying, it wouldn't have cost them much to make it balanced. I have "reversed engineered" the 410 and are thinking of balancing at least two outputs by a hardware fix.

2. 2 in / 8 out (analog)? Why? At least for me I'd preferred it the way around (but it might depend on what you do).

However, it works smoothely, the drivers have not shown any bugs and the software mixer/router is excellent.

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