Delta 44

A

Adrian

New member
I'm looking at getting a Midiman Delta 44 to use on my PowerMac G4. I just wanted to know if anyone has expierienced problems with the mac drivers or anything else on this puppy.

Anyone have any idea what a good price in Canadian $$ is for the Delta 44? Tom Lee in Vancouver has it for $449 I think. just wondering...

Adrian
 
Don't know anything about using the Delta44 on Macs... I have one on my PC...

But I'd consider shopping around some on-line stores in the US. I got mine shipped from the US for WAY less than I could buy it here. I paid $US259 for mine, which translates to about $380 Canadian at current exchange rates. Even with shipping that should be cheaper than the price you quoted from the store in Vancouver.

If you don't have any links to online music stores that sell these sorts of things, here's a few:
http://www.audiomidi.com - this is where I got mine. I got it less than they list it for, because I shopped around (I was buying some other hardware and software at the same time, so I found the cheapest price I could for each item, then audiomidi matched all my prices).
http://www.bayviewproaudio.com - this is actually where I found the Delta44 the cheapest, but the last time I looked they didn't have it listed.
http://www.digitalproaudio.com
http://www.doctoraudio.com
http://www.leighs.com
http://www.midi-classics.com
http://www.soundchaser.com

--Dingo
 
So Dingo, how much all up did it cost you? A friend just bought the Delta44 for $799AUD, and I want the gadget labs 824, but I'm not paying $1400 for it.

- gaffa
 
Hah! $A799 is what I was quoted for it in Australia also. No way I was gonna pay that when I saw what it cost in the US!

Here's the breakdown of what I bought. I'm just showing these prices to demonstrate to other Aussies how ripped off we are in this country when it comes to computer hardware and software! Prices are in US dollars:

Delta44 $259.00
MidiSport2x2 $79.00
Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 $265.00
Shipping $51.50
Total $654.50

In Australian dollars, that's about $1075 at our current exchange rates (I can't give you the exact price in Aussie dollars, coz I don't have my credit card statement yet). It would normally only be about $1000, but the Aussie dollar is pretty low at the moment.

Plus I had to pay $145.40 sales tax on the hardware, so the total in Aussie dollars was about $1220.

Take off Cakewalk to see the price of just the hardware (shipping probably would have been about the same) and you get $785 (that's the Delta44 AND the MidiSport2x2).

I can't find where I wrote down the local price of the MidiSport, but I'm pretty sure it was something over $200. So, if I bought the same hardware here I would have been paying over $1000 just for it. So that's around $250 or so I saved on the hardware.

If I'd just got the Delta44, I estimate it would have cost me about $A600 - that's $200 less than I could get it for here.

And don't get me started on software... I still see Cakewalk Pro Audio 8 advertised everywhere I look here (haven't they heard that version 9 has been out for 6 months?), and that at around $600. I paid probably about $500 in Aussie dollars, including shipping, for version 9. Frequently the percentage difference for software is even more than that.

Last time I was in the US (I work for a US company and so have to go back there a couple of times each year) I bough some new hardware to upgrade my machine (motherboard, CPU, memory, killer graphics card). It costs me $US650 (about $1000 Australian at the time). Customs were very nice to let me through without paying any sales tax (I had all the paper work them and was ready to pay up, but the guy's computer kept crashing... Heh heh... How ironic!). When I got home, I priced the exact same hardware at the cheapest hardware store I know of locally, and it was $1500. So I saved myself $500!

My policy now? I don't buy any hardware or software in Australia. I get it all in the US. I have some feelings of guilt at not supporting local distributors, but I figure if *I* can import this stuff, paying for fairly rapid shipping of single items rather than bulk shipping that distributors would be paying, and still get it so much cheaper than you can get it for here, then somewhere along the line we're getting ripped off.

For example, why are new release games $90 in Australia, when I can get them from the US, sometimes before they're even available here, for no more than $70 and often less than that? In the US, new games typically retail at about $50, but almost inevitably go on sale for $40 or even $30 soon after they're released - even the most popular games. I know some online stores that will ship by US Mail Parcel Post, which typically takes less than a week to get here, for less than $10. So I get many new release games for about $60 Australian (OK, I don't buy THAT many games ;-)

The big disadvantage? I don't develop a good relationship with local suppliers, so they're not as interested in talking to me. But the internet offers enough resources (and I know enough myself about the computer side of things) that that's never been a problem.

OK, I've raved on a little. Sorry about that, but I thought it might be of interest to some people.

Tim
 
Oh, I forgot to comment on the Gadget Labs situation.

The problem here is that, as far as I can see, you can't buy this card from the US. In the US, you can only buy direct from Gadget Labs, and they don't sell outside the US. Outside the US, you have to go through their local distributor. In Australia, that's Multimedia'n'Music, as you're probably aware. So you're stuck with the price they'll sell it for (currently they say $1295).

I almost bought a GadgetLabs Wave/496 (Multimedia'n'Music were kind enough to offer me a 424 until the 496's were available, at which point I return the 424 and they ship me a 496), but we're looking at $795 plus $15 delivery for the 496 (in other words, much the same as the Delta44 costs here), and as you saw in my previous post it wasn't worth it when I could get the Delta44 for so much cheaper from the US (and the single in/out/thru MIDI on the 496 wasn't adequate for me, so I would have had to get a MIDI interface of some sort on top of that).

Now, here's something interesting, the M-Audio Delta 1010 MSRP is about double that of the GadgetLabs Wave/824 in the US ($999 versus $499), but you can actually get them at some places (www.bayviewproaudio.com and www.midi-classics.com, for example) for $649. With sales tax and shipping, you're looking at about $1400 Australian.

Tim
 
OK, you'll be getting sick of me now, but I had to make one final comment that I'd forgotten about up until this point... The effect of the GST.

As near as I can figure it from my readings on the web sites of the ATO and Customs, and from what they've told me in person, here's the gist:

1. The affect on the cost of importing hardware from the US will be in our favour. The current 26.4% sales tax on hardware will be *replaced* by the 10% GST. Of course, the GST will be on the cost of the goods plus the cost of shipping and insurance, where-as the sales tax is only on the cost of the goods, but it's still likely to equal a considerable saving.

I don't know if hardware bought locally will go up or down as a result of the GST - I suspect that that will go down also.

2. The effect on software is not so good. Currently you don't pay any sales tax on imported software, but after the GST comes into effect we'll be paying the 10% GST on imported software (plus on the cost of shipping and insurance, of course). Bummer. I imagine software purchased locally will go up similarly.

Tim
 
Heard this story before...
ART Dual MP;
US$250

I was quoted AU$859 from a local shop... the shit thing is I emailed www.8thstreet.com to find out how much it'd cost me to ship one from the US (they claim to ship overseas) and the bastards never got back to me.
 
So, back to the Delta... I know Gadget Labs makes a similar card, are there any other competing cards *for Mac* that I should know about that I might find for cheaper?
 
For Canadian prices, I use www.savedbytech.com. That is the ONLY online pricelist I can find in Canadian dollars. I find if I shop around at the various music stores (similar ones in Victoria? Long & Mcquade, Mother's, Axe) they are about the same.

Have you checked in Vancouver? If the prices there are cheaper, could you let me know? If I can save a few hundred bucks on stuff, it's worth a trip down. Likewise, I've brought things through from Seattle pretty easily before.
 
Sorry, Adrian, we kinda hijacked your topic here. So back to your point...

Again, I wasn't looking specifically for the Mac, but I was looking at any soundcard of a similar nature that I could find.

At the "bottom end" of the "pro" or "prosumer" market of audio cards, I didn't find anything other than the Delta44 or the GadgetLabs Wave/424 (or 496, which is soon to be released and more comparable with the Delta44).

About the only other one I found was the Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS. This is a recording card (4 ins, 8 outs) plus a 3D audio gaming card. It also has an onboard synth (which is, apparently, pretty decent). I steered away from simply because I was suspicious of so many features packed into one product for so little. Also, I heard wildly divergent reports on the card. Hmmm, I suspect it might be PC only anyway...

Tim
 
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