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Topic: Sound card recommendation (Read 24197 times) previous topic - next topic
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Sound card recommendation

Reply #25
I'm selling TerraTec EWS 88 MT and DMX 6fire, which are a bit older cards, but are on the level you want. PM if you are interested.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #26
I own EMU 0404 USB and that was my winner for listening-recording/price cards sound quality is outstanding - and if you plan recording it has 0 latency direct monitoring and ghost power for mic. if you don't need power for mic choose 0202 usb same quality for listening and circa 40% cheaper.
remember to buy a nice speakers as well otherwise all combination with sound device won't bring you any effect.
reg.
Karol

Sound card recommendation

Reply #27
Thanks for help. I emailed HT OMEGA for info. I can get it. Now i have to choose between this:

EMU 0404
HT Omega Claro+
Asus Xonar

And i think that it will be HT Omega. Good enough? Is Emu any better in terms of SQ?

Sound card recommendation

Reply #28
Guys final question.

HT Omega Claro+ or Asus Xonar D2?

I am more on Claro side. What do you guys think?

Sound card recommendation

Reply #29
Guys final question.

HT Omega Claro+ or Asus Xonar D2?

I am more on Claro side. What do you guys think?


I have the Asus Xonar D2 and am very impressed with the sound quality. Those Burr Brown converters on all channels sound just sweet. I use 3 pairs of outputs as digital crossover for my speakers, so the consistency is great.
The Claro from what I read has premium components on the main LR output only- so if you listen mainly to stereo it will be just fine.
Both AKM (in Claro) and Burr Brown converters are very good. Burr Brown has a slightly mellower sound and solid low end.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #30
Both AKM (in Claro) and Burr Brown converters are very good. Burr Brown has a slightly mellower sound and solid low end.


http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....974#entry149481
Quote
The usual "audiophile" speak of non-audio related terms which are completely subjective and open to redefinition on a whim, are useless for any sort of progression in discussion.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #31
Both AKM (in Claro) and Burr Brown converters are very good. Burr Brown has a slightly mellower sound and solid low end.


http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....974#entry149481
Quote
The usual "audiophile" speak of non-audio related terms which are completely subjective and open to redefinition on a whim, are useless for any sort of progression in discussion.



Well, OK.
facing risk of getting banned I would then say to the OP, get the Asus because it measures 2dB better on S/N test and its THD+N is smaller by a couple of 1000th of 1%. There, that surely makes it a better sound card.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #32
The E-MU 0404 USB is a transparent unit(just as probably all of the units you listed are), but it's super versatile; it has I/Os for virtually any analog or digital device, and can be used stand alone for most functions, even. It's like a Swiss Army Pocket Audio Box.
Agreed, but it is also extremely CPU-intensive, and very jitter-sensitive. On my P4 3ghz, doing anything with it uses 35% of my CPU time - all of it in the kernel. On my (much faster) Core Duo laptop, the thing skips like crazy - probably due to induced jitter from the wireless adapter. And it still uses 10% of the CPU time in the kernel!

The hardware is a miracle, but as usual, Creative shot the drivers in the foot.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #33
No such experience with E-MU 0404 PCI. I guess, don't buy external if your intention isn't to carry it around with a laptop.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #34
I recently acquired a pair of Maudio 2496 for a project I'm working on. They cost me around 100Eur each and in my opinion are worth every cent. Clean sounding, great support on *nix and windows 2k/xp. Don't know about vista though...

my 2 cents
Rui Gominho

Sound card recommendation

Reply #35
The E-MU 0404 USB is a transparent unit(just as probably all of the units you listed are), but it's super versatile; it has I/Os for virtually any analog or digital device, and can be used stand alone for most functions, even. It's like a Swiss Army Pocket Audio Box.
Agreed, but it is also extremely CPU-intensive, and very jitter-sensitive. On my P4 3ghz, doing anything with it uses 35% of my CPU time - all of it in the kernel. On my (much faster) Core Duo laptop, the thing skips like crazy - probably due to induced jitter from the wireless adapter. And it still uses 10% of the CPU time in the kernel!
Please don't muddy the waters by calling this Jitter. Ok, so it's a variation in the time of digital events, and can technically be called jitter - but isn't what most people understand by the term. Kernel latency is probably the right concept - and can often be caused by drivers.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #36
  Hi!!  I am also looking at a Xonar D2 / D2X sound card.  However, what I need that I cannot find is the EXACT size of the cards.  I have a Dell Dimension 9200, and have 2 PCI slots that should fit the D2 and two PCI-E slots.. each on one side of my 8800GT graphics card.... so room on either side of the graphics card is an issue as well.

Any help would be appreciated.

Sound card recommendation

Reply #37
If you're planning on using the S/PDIF output to drive a separate AV amplifier, just pick up a $30 C-Media CM8738/8768-based sound card and run dOgbert's bit-perfect drivers. You can't get better than bit-perfect, to the best of my knowledge.

Cheers, Slipstreem. 


Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I'm looking for a simple digital output soundcard as well.  Unfortunately, I run Server 2008 (x64), so I can't use Dogbert's unsigned drivers.  At the moment, I use CMedia's Beta drivers for Vista, which only seem to use the analog output.

So, do any other simple, cheap, S/PDIF-output sound cards exist which have signed Vista x64 drivers (which actually output through the S/PDIF interface)?