Darla card

[zelmobeaty]

I'm buying a system off of a guy that has the 24 bit darla card already installed. No other sound cards. Will I be able to hook up headphones to the quarter inch analog outputs? Is that the only place to hook up speakers. I have Optimus powered monitors with a single stereo mini jack. (I know I should get better pro monitors, but I can't afford right now).

 

[drstawl]

You'll need to route the line out signal from Darla to a stereo (that's what I do) or something similar and the use the headphone out on the stereo. Line level is too weak to drive headphones. And besides, each of those 1/4" jacks on the Darla is a MONO signal. You'd need to use two of them to get a stereo mix.
Go ahead and get an 1/8" stereo to dual 1/4" mono adapter for those Optimus speakers. It'll work for now and give you an incentive to get better monitors. Another issue with only a Darla installed is what you'll do if you need to work with MIDI. Find out if the computer has a MIDI port at all.

 

[gaffer]

I bought a cheap 40 watt JVC amp at best Buy for $40 and hooked some old 3 way speakers that were in my basement and they really sound great. I bought a mixer and connected my roland card for midi, Darla24, 2 mics and a CD player to It and it sounds great.

You can buy an amp and pair of speakers pretty resonable these days.

Gaffer