Audiophile USB or alternatives?

[SteveMcB]

I'm sort-of in the market for a 2-in soundcard, but I need to know whether the USB audiophile and its competitors if there are any hold up in the real world.

The setup is:
Imac 600mHz G3, OS 9.1 (hence the need for a non-PCI solution)

My need is:
To get sound into the computer for editing (PT free at present) and burning at as high a quality as possible. I may do some overall mix compression once in the 'puter. I need 2 ins, preferably with the option of spdif or analog (my recorder is a roland VS840 -unbalanced analog, optical spdif and coax spdif outs), and using the computer as a main recording device is not an option - (it's my wife's for design work and general apps).

I am saving for a deposit on a house, so I want to do this as cheaply as possible.

With the reputation of the Audiophile 2496, the Audiophile USB looks like a good solution, but are there any real-world experiences out there with it?

Any better alternatives? Remember, must have 2 ins, pref analog and spdif. Anything else is a bonus, but these are the essentials.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Polaris20]

I will let you know as soon as my friend gets the Tascam US122. I am setting it up for him, and he's gonna be the guinea pig as to whether I will get one or not.

Same price as the Audiophile USB, but with an effects loop for external effects and also XLR's with 48v phantom power. Looks sweet. Bus powered too.

 

[SteveMcB]

Thanks man, that would be great! Does the 122 have spdif? I looked at their website and didn't think so... But I could deal with analog ins only if necessary, I'd just like the option of spdif if I didn't need any additional analog processing of the mix.

Thanks in anticipation,
Steve

 

[riotshield]

I would go with any other interface (Firewire) if possible. I demo'd some of M-Audio's other USB interfaces, and owned an Edirol UA-20 for a while, and from what I read the Audiophile USB suffers the same problems. The slightest system change while recording causes dropouts in USB interfaces. I believe USB has the lowest priority so if something else in the background pops up while recording it will ruin it. I had this problem with a WiFi card on my laptop that would change its connection status and cause dropouts

 

[Polaris20]

I would go with any other interface (Firewire) if possible. I demo'd some of M-Audio's other USB interfaces, and owned an Edirol UA-20 for a while, and from what I read the Audiophile USB suffers the same problems. The slightest system change while recording causes dropouts in USB interfaces. I believe USB has the lowest priority so if something else in the background pops up while recording it will ruin it. I had this problem with a WiFi card on my laptop that would change its connection status and cause dropouts

That's why you close everything in your systray while you record. I used an MBox for a couple weeks, and it was fine, so long as you close all the crap in the systray.

 

[Timanator]

That's why you close everything in your systray while you record. I used an MBox for a couple weeks, and it was fine, so long as you close all the crap in the systray.

Thats if your on Windows 98 or ME.

Do you know how many services are running in the background on a Windows 2k or XP machine at any given time?

 

[SteveMcB]

Bear in mind, my system is with a mac...

I've heard mostly good stuff about the M-box, which would certainly fulfill all of my requirements and more, except for the price relative to other similarly spec'ed interfaces.

Thanks for the input
Steve

 

[Polaris20]

Thats if your on Windows 98 or ME.

Do you know how many services are running in the background on a Windows 2k or XP machine at any given time?

Sure do. Go ctrl+alt+del and have a look. There's lots of stuff you can turn off.

Once again, USB works fine, in the case of the MBox, and many have had fine results with the Tascam US428/224.

Sure, it's only going to do 2in/2out. We know this. We live with it for portability.