Some are already using 192 kHz, but most believe this is superfluous. 96 kHz will not be obsolete anytime soon, and frankly, something that sounds good will never be obsolete. 16 bit vs. 24 bit makes much more of a difference in quality at this level than 44.1 vs. 96 kHz. I believe the 1010LT is a great card for the money and would serve you well for many years.

oh and I had one more question about the 1010 card, if I have a Mackie 1402-VLZ for home studio recording purposes... how exactly will I run from the M-a 1010LT into the mixer board so that I can use the Mackie as a pre-amp for my con. Mics? I guess the 1010LT comes with two xlr connectors from what it looks like l/r RCA and the rest are RCA?... so in that case would I have to use addapters? I am checking other boards and some ppl just don't like the M-Audio w/ a mixer board and would rather buy the delta M-Audio 1010 which is understandable because of the conveiniance of TRS... but it would be about another $100 and I'm a college student and broke lol.... but I dont' know maybe the advantages of the 1010 non-lite would outweigh the $100 what do you guys think? thanx for all the input... (please excuse my naivity feel free to criticize) lol I'm still learning

and if I DO buy the Delta 1010non-lite would it be advantagous for me to us my mackie 14 channel mixer or just stick with the interface that comes with the Delta 1010non-lite? (I love how quiet Mackie mixers are) 8-) :lol:

You can buy 1/4" to RCA snakes at Musician's Friend to hook up your Delta 1010LT to a mixer. I'm currently using a Yamaha MG16/4 hooked up to a 1010LT via an 8-channel snake. I'm only using the 6 RCA inputs, though. It works very well! The only real advantage I could see of the 1010 over the LT would be possibly less noise because the 1010 would be mounted outside of the computer.

The other advantage is you won't need to convert (from 1/4 to RCA) your signals before goin in your soundcard. You just take the outs of your channels on the Mackie and send them directly in the Ins of the 1010. In this configuration, you can use your mackie preamps and they will be sent directly in your soundcard. Great and simple configuration if you like the mackie preamps.

So Oliver, you were leaning towards the 1010LT or the 1010? I'm sorry it was a bit murky and I couldn't understand to which post you were replying to.... thanx

From what I've read the major difference between the 1010 and 1010LT is the fact that the 1010 uses balanced ins and outs.

Will this not be a major factor as far as noise is concerned?

I also wanted the 1010 but can't afford £359 so looked at the LT. I think I'll go for the 66 as it's in my price bracket and uses balanced I/O

I was referring to the 1010, not the 1010lt. The lt is pretty sketch because of the RCA inputs through little wires in the back of your pc. The 1010 has a breakout box with all the 1/4" inputs and outputs being balanced. Big advantage for simplicity of use with your mixer and for the noise factor which can get pretty bad with the lt if your connectors are close to power cables and also the fact that the conversion is done in your pc (even more noise). All in all, the 1010 with the breakout box is well worth the 100$ extra if your serious about this. You'll hook it up in no time with your mixer and then your ready to record!

ahh it's all so clear now Oliver hehe thanx.... I've been researching the whole "balanced/unbalanced" thing to try and figure it out... there are alot of terms that I don't understand but from what I gather (and maybe the only I can grasp from reading up on it so far is... ) unbalanced is for consumers and semi pro while balanced is needed for professional recordings.... which is what I hope to purchase.... could somebody clearify the bal/unbal mystery for me please? lol I'm in the dark on that one too *lowers his head in discrace of his own Naivity* thanx guys

I have the pleasure of owning a 1010. It's a very noiseless piece of equipment, although on certain systems you have to disable your computer's ACPI, which basically only means you can't put your computer on standby. That may or may not be true with the LT version. I can't argue with the quality of it either, they put it together nicely and with the lack of preamps to keep fidelity. If you're stripped for cash go with the LT but the 1010 is definately a much worthier investment.

As for your question of bal/unbal connections, you can search the site for the thread concerning that, but I'll give you a quick summary here:

Balanced connections are designed to eliminate noise that's picked up along the wire.

They have an extra wire that picks up the noise along with the rest of the wires. At the receiving end, the phase of this "noise line" is inverted and brought back into the signal, which cancels out the noise, because when two signals have opposite wave troughs and crests they cancel each other out. That's whats happening here.

Unbalanced connections are just plus and minus, basically, with no noise cancellation action involved at all.

wow that makes alot more sense than the other mumbo jumbo that I had been reading lol. I'm just not an electronics major lol. thanx a ton... any more deff would be appriciated to although I will check older threads as you suggested too thanx again

David French wrote: Some are already using 192 kHz, but most believe this is superfluous. 96 kHz will not be obsolete anytime soon, and frankly, something that sounds good will never be obsolete. 16 bit vs. 24 bit makes much more of a difference in quality at this level than 44.1 vs. 96 kHz. I believe the 1010LT is a great card for the money and would serve you well for many years.

Was wondering if you had any idea if the word clock I/O on the 1010 LT is capable of handling external word clock (as it should). Someone on this forum seemed to think otherwise.
thanks