Poll: Best soundcard brand

  • Thread starter Thread starter ssman
  • Start date Start date

Poll: Best Soundcard Brand (bang for buck under $500)

  • e-mu

    Votes: 51 16.7%

  • echo

    Votes: 30 9.8%

  • m-audio

    Votes: 145 47.5%

  • RME

    Votes: 72 23.6%

  • creamware

    Votes: 5 1.6%

  • ST Audio

    Votes: 3 1.0%

  • Terratec

    Votes: 11 3.6%
  • Total voters
    305
S

ssman

New member
For recording, which company's cards has the better bang for buck (under $500)

m-audio, e-mu, echo, RME, creamware, ST Audio, Terratec
 
ssman said:
For recording, which company's cards has the better bang for buck (under $500)

m-audio, e-mu, echo, RME, creamware, ST Audio, Terratec
Click to expand...

In no particular order... Presonus.

Oh, you mean from that list? M-Audio is decent bang for the buck, but their drivers... not so much.... No opinions on the others.
 
didn't know presonus makes soundcards. Can't add it to the list anymore.
 
Well...Im not gonna cast a vote because the only one I have tried is my Terratec EWS88/MT. Over all I like the card and breakout box. HOWEVER, as said earlier about M-audio's drivers....Terratec is in a similar boat. Sometimes, just for no reason...Ill get a blue screen and the error is ALWAYS on my soundcard. Most of the time, its when Im recording something, but not always....have been playing yahoo pool... :p .

Anyway, just updated my drivers this weekend and have not had a blue screen since. Ill give it a few days and see what happens...I may restore my harddrive and install the new drivers right off the bat....
 
I have an RME card and an RME outboard converter. Totally solid stuff, no problems ever.
 
What happens if I recommend something, and nobody likes it?

Find a card that fits your workflow, and go with it. Do you really think you can hear the difference, assuming you have set it up correctly in a compatible system?
 
What about these $6 sound cards I see on froogle? Something wrong with those? :D :confused:
 
lpdeluxe said:
Do you really think you can hear the difference, assuming you have set it up correctly in a compatible system?
Click to expand...

That's an excellent question.

I dont have the resources to do an A/B test, most of us dont. We buy a soundcard and say "presonus is the best" or "m-audio is the best" yada yada. I would be curious if anybody has actually done some kind of A/B test or if people are just being loyal to their purchases?

I have owned 2 soundcards: an Echo Darla24 and an M-audio firewire solo. Didnt have them at the same time. The M-audio recordings are much better, HOWEVER I am using the built-in pre. The Darla had no pre, I was using a spirit folio mixer. No real way to compare the two.

I am GUESSING that most of us cant hear the difference. The key word is GUESSING.

It would be VERY interesting for somebody to do a test, maybe somebody has. Lets say 3 similiar cards with built in Pres like Tascam122, Maudio Firewire solo and Presonus inspire.

Then do one with cards that have no pres, or dont use them. Use the same external pre, same mic, same conditions etc. I bet its strictly a matter of preference and very few could tell a difference at this prosumer price level.

Of course things like drivers and if the product is reliable is very important, I didnt have problems there. Soundwise however, I bet its all the same. When I read someone declaring " Brand X blows em away" I chuckle, even guffaw and grimace. I bet thats nonsense. Just a guess. ;)
 
DavidK said:
That's an excellent question.

I dont have the resources to do an A/B test, most of us dont. We buy a soundcard and say "presonus is the best" or "m-audio is the best" yada yada. I would be curious if anybody has actually done some kind of A/B test or if people are just being loyal to their purchases?
Click to expand...

I haven't done any blind testing, but I have had the opportunity to work with an M-Audio Delta 1010LT, an M-Audio FireWire 1814, and a Presonus FirePod. The FirePod wins hands down, mainly because on the Mac platform, it uses Apple's stock FireWire AVC drivers while M-Audio ships their own custom drivers that (after a minor Mac OS X update) have been known to just plain stop producing sound, create weird looping sounds, wedge the audio app for tens of seconds at a time, and other fun problems. I've seen reports of these problems with their Delta cards. I experienced it personally on my FW1814. Fortunately, I had read the reports and immediately went and grabbed an updated driver. I'm still waiting to upgrade to 10.4.4 because I'm scared their drivers will self-destruct again.

And then there was the whole thing about M-Audio's Delta cards being notched for 5v-only operation when the cards were actually using a 3.3v chipset. Didn't bite people in the backside until Apple switched to PCI-X a few years ago, and then suddenly the cards wouldn't fit. For a modest fee, they would "upgrade" the card. As best I can tell, it involved a Dremel or similar along the card edge connector....

But in terms of audio quality, the FW1814 sounds almost as good as the FirePod. The pres in the FirePod sounded better to my ears, but I haven't had time to exhaustively compare the two yet. The Delta 1010LT lacked a lot of clarity compared to the newer designs. I'm not sure how much of that was the card and how much of it was the CR1604 preamps I was using to drive it.
 
Good post dgatwood. :)

Certainly reliability has to be #1, if it doesnt work theres no point in buying it. If they sounded similiar in quality I would go with the sturdy one. My m-audio has worked flawlessly but I keep reading about driver issues, something I dont really understand very well.
Sort of old, but at the time a very interesting test.
Click to expand...

Indeed, some interesting stuff in there. :cool:
 
Oooh! I'm super qualified to offer an opinion for once! I've used ST audio, M-Audio, Presonus and RME personally.

That said, the ST audio I had crapped out after three years. Not bad for a $100. The drivers were a bit sketchy so I probably wouldn't buy them again. Bad latency issues too.

The M-Audio FW Audiophile I had was pretty steady on the computers where I used it. No probs on the few desktops and even a pretty old Gateway laptop with a Firewire PCMCIA card. It was still pretty steady w/ zero latency up until it was stolen.

Now, my home system is built around the Firebox and I like the flexibilty of the unit but doesn't seem as stable as the M-Audio I had. A few too many dropouts/restarts for my taste.

At work, I have the RME 9652 w/ 3 ADAT opticals and I have to say I'm very impressed by this thing. It's drivers have been awesome since day one and sound quality has been superb.

Of course, it comes into play that my experience with the different brands come at different price points so it's kind of apples to oranges on features/sound quality/etc. With that said though, I feel most comfortable with the RME, then M-Audio, then Presonus and then ST Audio.
 
after reading dgatwood's post, I realized that I should probably add that my recording work was done on 4 different PCs w/ varying levels of RAM/CPU speed. No mac work so that might account for our difference in experience w/ presonus.
 
I have an M-Audio Delta 1010....that being said....when I upgrade, it will be an RME Fireface 800.
 
I have a presonus firepod I am very happy with.. Their customer support is great. I have to admit the absence of the lightpipe kind of bothers me since I cant hook up any other units to it except another firepod via firewire, and that may tax my system and the firewire interface too much. But as for 8 chans of xlr with no outboard gear required to hook up and do basic recording. Its really great. I would expect the firebox to be just as good, I hear the inspires are allright as well..

Presonus has my vote, though I might look into an RME Fireface or somthing in a few years.

-Josh
 
M-audio. Stable drivers but not prefect and great hardware for low prices.

My 24/96 is really nice.
 
lpdeluxe said:
What happens if I recommend something, and nobody likes it?

Find a card that fits your workflow, and go with it. Do you really think you can hear the difference, assuming you have set it up correctly in a compatible system?
Click to expand...

Once you get to a certain level, its not aways aboutthe "hear" part, its about the useabliity part
 
stonepiano said:
, I feel most comfortable with the RME, then M-Audio, then Presonus and then ST Audio.
Click to expand...

Realizing of course that muadio IS STAudio
 
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