Echo Darla 24 for $99 @ GC! Deal or dumb?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scooter B
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Scooter B

Scooter B

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I made an impulse buy at GC today.

Echo Darla 24/96 with TRS ins and outs to replace an elcheapo SoundBlaster PCI 64 OEM on my Gateway (moo) with a PIII 450MHz. Only $99 plus I picked up 2 shock mounts for my MK-012's for another $50 plus they ate the sales tax.

1 Echo Darla 24/96
2 Shock mounts for the 012's
Grand Total $150 cash.

Deal or dumb?

My current humble recorder set up is a Yamaha 4-track cassette but I plan to get a 2816 or similiar in a few years. I have picked a a couple decent budget mic's Mk-012s, MXL-v-67M and one SM-57 and pre's DMP3 and a slightly used VCQ6.

Basically I wanted to be able to send a few things into the PC for MP3 and possibly digital mastering. Just home projects and friends - NO comercial work and no MIDI needs so far.

My search here on the Echo Darla brought some older info about models that did not have balanced ins and outs and one that said it only accepted digital ins and I panicked until I rechecked the specs on the box.

It seems that at the original list of $399 there were better options in that range but for $99 and my limited set up it should do me for a while I am thinking.

Anyone out there with experience on the Echo Darla 24/96 with balanced ins and outs?

Was this a deal or a bad impulse waste of $$:confused:
 
getting the echo darla for 150 would be a deal.. i think u did a good purchase IMHO, echo has a good name so i don't see y the darla wouldn't live up to it
 
Well- does it work?

The only important question.

The only downside to this purchase would be the lack of support from Echo for the discontinued card. Big Deal. My Gina 20 is WAY older than that and still works fine. You SCORED!!

I've seen some BBS's that discuss the revered Delta 1010 and from what was being said regarding their driver support you'd think THAT was a discontinued card.... :)
 
Yeah, because most discontinued cards get new drivers every 4 months.
 
btw, at $99 yeah I'd say you got a good deal!

Slackmaster 2000
 
Damn, I paid twice that for my Echo Mia. Good Deal!!
 
Echo still supports the discontinued products, discontinued just means they dont make them anymore.
 
I paid $300 for my Darla 24 about a year and a half ago....Awesome card...

You got one helluva deal....
 
Slackmaster2K said:
Yeah, because most discontinued cards get new drivers every 4 months.
Click to expand...

Yeah, unless you own the ill-fated Lexicon Core 2. Just out of curiousity I checked for updates on the website - still on version 2 of the drivers - released a couple of years ago... still pisses me off - that was one awesome sounding card, if you could get it to work properly.
 
Brokenwindow,

I may have broken card....It was an open box but new and under waranty sp?

I intalled it and everything intalled like it was supposed to.

I went to their website echoaudio.com to check for newer drivers and there was a "beta" upgrade driver (5-06) that was supposed to "fix a few bugs" in 5-02 or 5-04. But as this is now dicontinued they indicated there would be no support for the newest driver.

They recomemded downloading the updated driver to floppy and installing from there.

After I downloaded the file and unzipped it ( but did not install it) my computer starts rebooting itself over and over untill I have to literally pull the plug.

Now my PC won't run unless EVERYTHING Echo Darla related is out of the system (card included).

I basically worked on it from 6:00PM until midnight just to get my computer running in anything but Windows safe mode.

We will see about tech support.

Anyone out there with similiar issues or problems RE: Echo Darla 24?

It is probably one someone returned for the same reason
:eek:
 
Well the open box purchase of the DARLA 24 for $99 in on its way to M-Audio for diagnostics.

I had to clear my hard drive with little backed up because my burner could not be accessed in Windows Safe Mode and that was the only Mode still working other than DOS.

This has been a major pain. I lost all my handy bookmarks I picked up here and although I stored my outlook address book on a floppy ...it isn't there now.:mad:

Did any of you who use/used anECHO DARLA have similiar problems?

Basically it installs fine and self proclaims that it is working correctly for thirty seconds untill the computer reboots itself two or three times after wich the only way to shut off the computer is to literally pull the plug from the case!

Even the power switch on the tower won't work at that point!

I have a bad feeling I bought a returned unit from GC and they are letting me go through the headache of trouble shooting and getting it repaired.

:rolleyes:

I have gotten responses from tech support though so hopefully we will get this up and running.:confused:
 
>Now my PC won't run unless EVERYTHING Echo Darla related is out of the system (card included).

Does that reboot/can't get to Windows problem resolve itself when you remove the card from the system? If so it's clearly a hardware issue and not a driver issue.
Not that you might not have such an issue as well after they fix the warrantied card, :cool: but it doesn't pay to get all henny-penny about a problem that you haven't yet shown to exist!

Where does M-Audio fit into this picture? The Darla is an Echo card.

http://www.echoaudio.com/

:confused:
 
Ya M audio?


It would be Event electronics or echo audio.

So GC would not take it back? why don't you just return it to the store?

My layla has been rock solid. never a problem.

As far as the drivers go. the one nice thing is that most of the echo cards share driver patches, so even if they discontinue the card it should still get updates.


Good luck:)

F.S.
 
You are right its Echo Audio not M-Audio.

Does that reboot/can't get to Windows problem resolve itself when you remove the card from the system? If so it's clearly a hardware issue and not a driver issue.
Not that you might not have such an issue as well after they fix the warrantied card, but it doesn't pay to get all henny-penny about a problem that you haven't yet shown to exist!

I was not aware that I was "all Henny Penny" but if you lost everything on your hard drive and spent a week of stressfull workload on your job while extremely sleep deprived while you rebuilt and debugged your hard drive me the thinks you would be at least a little frustrated.

Yes IF the card is the problem it will get fixed under warranty and I still got a good value for the price. I have gotten good support from Echo Audio. I am just not willing to crash my hard drive again until the card gets checked out.

My concern was IF GC marked it down to $99 knowing it was returned as not working....that kind of sucks. This was the last one they had and I knew it was being discontinued so I figured that was where the discount came from.

I'm not flaming anyone or any company....just giving an update on my experience with my "deal or dumb" impulse buy.
 
Yeah- if I suddenly lost all the shit on my HD I'd be severely annoyed.

I could relate to your impatience and could tell you a sad story about a floppy drive and a pair of pliers- but I won't... :)

You still didn't answer my main question. :rolleyes:

Does that reboot/can't get to Windows problem resolve itself when you remove the Darla card from the system?

>My concern was IF GC marked it down to $99 knowing it was returned as not working....that kind of sucks

You think THAT sucks? Walmart takes back H/P printers they sell for full pop KNOWING they are dead right out of the box and puts them right back on the shelf for the next unsuspecting victim- also at FULL pop!!!
 
drstawl,

Thank you for your interest and help. I apologize for ignoring your question but I am not sure I know the awnser without walking through it again.

Lets see.... as I recall everytime my system locked up I unplugged the card from the PCI slot first, then it powered up to WIN 98 desktop ok, then I deleted all ECHO software and drivers (as recomended in the manuel) before trying another slot and re-installing the card and drivers to the other two slots.

So yes the problem did resolve with the card uninstalled.

The CD software includes a program called Echo Reporter wich scans your system and tells you if your system meets the requirements that you run before you install the hardware and drivers. My system passed with flying colors by the Echo Reporter's assessment.

I also checked with Gateway and Windows websites to make sure I did have all the latest drivers and fixes available.

I just don't get the power switch on the tower not working during the ECHO DARLA lockups. It works to shut down if Windows locks up and it turns on when the computer is completely off so you would think it could not be affected by internal software or hardware conflicts but simply a power source switch.

I also disabled my Norton Antivirus protection during instalation as recomended by the manuel. I am a stickler for following instructions to the letter if I am at all unfamiliar with something new.

So there you have it: seven and a half paragraphs to say YES the lockups did quite once the card was uninstalled.

:D
 
Update on the ECHO DARLA 24 purchase.

Talked to Echo Audio yesterday and the DSP in the card is 100% fried.

They were suprised that any one was still selling the DARLA as NIB retail. But when I told them I bought it less than a month ago they told me to fax the reciept from GC and they would send me out a new one that very day!

Yeah for ECHO AUDIO tech support and customer service.

RE: GC While I won't be boycotting them ...I will be more cautious about open box purchases.

End result I still should have a good audio card at a great price but went through some major headache with having to clear the hard drive.
 
Just an update and thanks to those who offered thier help.

My ECHO DARLA 24 arrived back from echo Audio and was repaired under waranty. The card has been installed and everything seems to work but I have yet to record with it yet but I hope to check that out this week.:)
 
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