does the delta 44 sound better than the 2496?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Altaire
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My understanding is that the converters are the exact same thing,the 44 just has 4 instead of 2!
 
same convertors in the 44 but I'd skip that choice and go for the 66 if you plan on adding another delta card further down the line to increase your inputs & outputs. You need to link the delta cards via the S/PDIF i/o's and the 44 doesn't have S/PDIF
 
The converters in the 2496 are newer than in the Delta series.
 
They are the same converters...

and you don't need s/pdif to link more than one delta card if you are running win2k or xp.

the benefits of the 44 over the audiophile are that it has balanced i/o, however its short comings are that it lacks midi and s/pdif.

the only difference between the 44 and the 66 are the addition of s/pdif to the 66.

another benefit of the 44 (and 66) over the audiophile are that the electronics are stored away from your computers power supply, fans, and hard drives, thus reducing machine noise.

I have deltas 1010, 410, and an audiophile... they all use the same drivers, and are essentially the same cards with different i/o configurations.

in the end, unless you are monitoring with some pretty nice speakers, you won't notice much of a difference. although balanced signals tend to be a little hotter, and don't suffer from electrical or radio interference, like unbalanced signals sometimes do...

if the bulk of your equipment is balanced, I'd suggest that you go with a delta 44 or 66, but if you have mostly unbalanced equipment, you should still get the 44 or 66, as they will allow you to expand in the future...

and to be honest, the delta a/d conversion shouldn't be your biggest concern, your mic's and pre's should be your biggest concern...
 
Ditto for what LewisWu said. The other difference over the 44 and 66 is about $50 too. If you only need the 4 Ins/4 outs you can't go wrong with the 44 (And you can add additonal M-Audio cards without needing S/PDIF...I've run my 44 with another 44 and a 1010). As far as the converters go, they are tried and true (and have been used as far back as Terratec's EWS series cards). Final thought, M-Audio has excellent support for these cards and feature fairly regular updates for the cards (Even their legacy models such as the ones we are talking about here).
 
So you can record 8 tracks with two Delta 44's and they stay in sync?
 
You might get a little more noise in the Audiophile just because of lack of balanced connectors. I had a very electrically noisy environment and was using longer cables to connect my hardware synths to my computer, and I saw a significant difference in noise floor between my Audiophile and 66 when I still had them. If you're using short cable runs, you probably won't see too much of a difference.
 
You need to link the delta cards via the S/PDIF i/o's and the 44 doesn't have S/PDIF
Click to expand...

No you don't. The drivers take care of sync in the case of the Delta's.

The Operating Systems Windows 2000/XP support "KernelSync" and do not necessarily need the external connection using S/PDIF. Delta 44 can only be stacked in these Operating Systems, since this card does not have a S/PDIF connector. For this type of Operation, all cards have to be set to "Multiple Card Sync".

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.faq&ID=8e8f75bd04d1e9a27d16e263a00b6b1d
 
the revision of the card will indicate how old or new the converters are...

My audiophile is from 2003, and my 1010, is also from 2003,they have the same converters on the pci card. However my 410 is from 2001...

I have a friend whose audiophile is from 1999...

so it really depends what revision of the card you have...
 
well I checked into the points above, my 1010 is from 1999 and the 2 410s are from 2001....

I pulled the S/PDIF link cables from the back of the three cards and set them up as multiple card in sync......passed the Cubase AISO test after a little tweaking and increased my I/O count from 12in/24out to 18in/30out

Gotta love this forum, it's a gold mine! :D


{AFTER EDIT THOUGHT}

now if all the cards are synched internaly how will things go when I want to use the S/PDIF inputs to record? Won't the clock on the source only sync to the card I have it conected to? Guess I'll need to try it out and report back
 
Sklathill said:
You might get a little more noise in the Audiophile just because of lack of balanced connectors.
Click to expand...

the noisefloor on my 2496 is about 10dB higher than the noisefloor on my Delta 1010 (the rackmount one). i attribute this to the balanced TRS connectors, the breakout box and the fact that the 1010 is outside the computer instead of inside. however, the 2496 is still a rather quiet card.....the 1010 is just quieter (and sounds better, IMO).

so, yes, i notice a difference. the 2496 only gets used when i need 10 tracks instead of 8. i need to pick up a 2nd 1010, but everyone seems to want WAAAAY too much for a used one. if someone would let one go for around $150, they'd have a deal. :D


cheers,
wade
 
So then would the same noise issues be a consideration when chosing between the 1010LT and the standalone 1010?

What I really need is a Delta 44 with MIDI. I'd like to have the breakout box, but the 1010 (non-LT) is out of reach for me.
 
amonte said:
What I really need is a Delta 44 with MIDI. I'd like to have the breakout box, but the 1010 (non-LT) is out of reach for me.
Click to expand...
So buy the 44 and add a seperate USB-MIDI interface, they can be had for around $30.

LemonTree, if the cards are set to Multiple card sync the other cards should follow any clock recieved by any of the other cards (Either external or internal via a sequencer).
 
do you need midi because you want to run gigastudio? otherwise an external midi interface is a good suggestion.
 
LewisWu said:
do you need midi because you want to run gigastudio? otherwise an external midi interface is a good suggestion.
Click to expand...

Actually, I need MIDI because I was planning on using electronic drums to lay down the drum parts, and then use DFH2 to produce the sounds. Not sure on the software yet, but it will probably either be Sonar Home Studio or Tracktion.

If I use a PCB based MIDI card, will it be fast enough? Will there be syncing issues?
 
A PCI interface or $30 USB-MIDI interface will be fast enough (But most of the latency in this type of setup will be caused by the latency of the soundcard, provided you have a decent spec'd computer, and even so you shouldn't have any problems).
 
Atterion said:
LemonTree, if the cards are set to Multiple card sync the other cards should follow any clock recieved by any of the other cards (Either external or internal via a sequencer).
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I'm in the middle of a soundproofing nightmare, prolly another few weeks from complletion but I'll give it a try then. I often use the S/PDIF in from my M-Audio Tampa mic pre to record vocals while monitoring back to the desk through the balanced output for zero latency....same goes with my (cringe) Behringer V-Amp Pro
 
LewisWu said:
... another benefit of the 44 (and 66) over the audiophile are that the electronics are stored away from your computers power supply, fans, and hard drives, thus reducing machine noise.

I have deltas 1010, 410, and an audiophile... they all use the same drivers, and are essentially the same cards with different i/o configurations.
Click to expand...

The Delta 1010 is a different beast from the 44 and the 66. On the 1010, the analog electronics and the converters are in the breakout box (not to mention that the 1010 just has better converters anyway). I know the 44 and 66 have breakout boxes, but i'm pretty sure there's no critical electronics in the 44/66 breakout box. if I still had my 66, i'd open it up and take pictures to show you, but it's gone :-).

Maybe you are talking about the 1010LT? Big difference ya know :D
 
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