1010LT vs OmnistudioPCI vs Emu1212M

[Vectron]

Being that these three cards are now all in the $200-220 price range,
which is best, or are the differences insignificant?
I know the OmnistudioPCI does not have MIDI, and the two 2 do.
The reason I ask is, that the BehringerBCA2000(my first choice) seems to have dog drivers presently, and I don't want to have to wait another 6 months or more for (possibly)stable drivers.
Thanks for any input.

 

[manning1]

vectron. its really difficult to offer opinions.
particularly when so much new stuff is coming out so fast.
if were me i would seriously consider the 1010 as its a proven performer with lots of folks. all i can do is offer some guidance.
the emu is a new sound card. often with new sound cards it takes a few iterations for the drivers for the pc to settle down.
i think i saw a post a week or so ago however by someone commenting he felt the 1010 is superior to the emu in sound quality. but i just dont know.
sometimes its just personal preference.
frankly its all pretty good at this price level . but i would concentrate on who has the most solid drivers. the 1010 is proven as i said.
its a really tough call - what your asking.
peace.

 

[Sklathill]

Having used the 1010LT and the E-mu...there's no question that the E-mu is a better piece of hardware with better sound quality. However, the M-Audio has better drivers, with good multi-channel WDM support, GSIF, and proper digital pass-through on the SPDIF. However, if you don't need those, there's no question in my mind that you should get the E-mu. The E-mu has very solid drivers...but the driver team is just choosing not to implement the things mentioned above (I don't think we're ever going to get digital pass-through or GSIF, but it's possible for the community to finally convince E-mu otherwise on their WDM stance...POSSIBLE, not entirely likely...) Since it's bundled with Cubase software and you can add on an ADAT device to increase your input/output options further down the line.

OTOH...if you need 8 analog inputs right here, right now, and on the cheap, the 1010LT would be the better bet.

 

[Sklathill]

Also, while the 1010 (non LT) is certainly comparable in quality to the E-mu's non-M offerings and does not lag significantly behind in sound quality compared to the M stuff, the 1010LT does. The combination of lesser converters and unbalanced connectors make for a dynamic range that's much less than either the 1010 or the E-mu stuff. The Omnistudio ain't a bad piece if you want the mic preamps, but the sound quality (just talking about converters here...not quality of mic preamp which actually is pretty close to the M-audio DMP3, which is considered one of the best cheaper preamps you can get) on that is more similar to the LT than the 1010.