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Topic: M-Audio Sonica sound quality? (Read 2798 times) previous topic - next topic
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M-Audio Sonica sound quality?

The M-Audio Sonica seems like the perfect solution for me. A small usb box that I can connect to my ibook in addition to my home PC, without taking any PCI slots, and all for less than 99 euros. This would only used for music listening through headphones.

But I can't find any decent reviews on the web. They all say it sounds good, but offer no precisions whatsoever. One person of amazing insight even used the optical input of his soundblaster live to gauge quality of the Sonica's optical output. Way to go, Einstein!

The specs listed on the M-Audio page report a 97dB signal-to-noise ratio, a whole 10dB less than the Revolution. But I know theoretical specs mean little as opposed to real listening.

Has anyone seen decent reviews comparing the Sonica with other sound card solutions ? And if you have the Sonica, what's your opinion of it (sound quality, stability/maturity of drivers, cpu utilisation, coexistence with gaming-orientated sound cards...)?

M-Audio Sonica sound quality?

Reply #1 –
I don't have any audiophile style reviews but:

It sounds very good to me listening on about 3000 euros worth of stereo gear. I pass the digital signal through my high end Sony MD player, making use of its DAC.

I haven't noticed any particular resource consumption on a fairly low spec 15" LCD iMac (nor was I expecting any).

BUT:

When I first installed the drivers my machine froze and I had to force a reboot.

The drivers for Mac OS X Jaguar are marked x.xd1 which I take to mean development version. They have remained so ever since they were first released about 6 months ago.

I noticed a crackling and popping sound that became so frequent and jarring that I feared it would damage my speakers.

Some investigation proved that it really disliked having the Furthurnet filesharing client running at the same time (which sucks as I like to leave it running 24/7).

Now with Furthurnet out of the picture I still notice the occasional click, though I cannot trace it to any obvious cause (high load etc.). Note that my fairly hefty Java IDE appears to cause it no problems.

I sent an email to their support nearly two weeks ago and have heard nothing since, not even an acknowledgement.

Overall, I'm still glad I bought it, but look forward to new drivers (and a reply to my email).

M-Audio Sonica sound quality?

Reply #2 –
Quote
The specs listed on the M-Audio page report a 97dB signal-to-noise ratio, a whole 10dB less than the Revolution.

True 97 dBA of dynamic range is pretty good, however that doesn't mean that those 97 dBA are real, some real-world measurements would be good to confirm this. I doubt that under usual listening conditions anyone could notice the difference between a dynamic range of 97 dBA and 107 dBA.

Quote
But I know theoretical specs mean little as opposed to real listening.


That is the usual "audiophile" way of thinking, but real measured specs do say a lot.

M-Audio Sonica sound quality?

Reply #3 –
Sorry, don't know of any Sonica reviews, nor do I have any helpful hints.

I take it you've seen the Audiophile USB?  What does everyone think of that?
I want NBC's Ed on DVD/Blu-ray!