Soundcard with digital input

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daeljan
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Daeljan

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Hi all,

I need a soundcard that has an external digital input so that I can mixdown from a digital recorder to my PC without having to convert the signal.

This so far has proven to be a search where little specific information is available. I don't need an amazing card with Dolby Surround Sound and other effects processors - just a simple card with an EXTERNAL digital input.

Does anybody know of a suitable card, and what sort of price range I'm looking at?

Cheers folks!
 
Any soundcard with a CMI8738 chip and digital connectors (the cheapest don't have digital connectors, but may have the headers on the PCB).
Starting around $10-20.
Try the M-Audio DiO2448 drivers if you need ASIO support.
 
I have an Aopen AW850 Deluxe which is a cmedia cmi8738 card with both optical and coaxial digital i/o at 16/24bit 44/48khz. The AW850D is the same card and costs about US$25. Chaintech, Trust and Zoltrix/Z-cyber also make 8738 cards and so do a number of other firms.
 
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Ta'!

Thanks folks,

I did some more digging too, but you helped to confirm what I was thinking.

I have been offered an SB Live 5.1 very cheap, so I just need to bring out the relevant pin-outs.

Incase it is usefull to anyone out there, here's an interesting link about the SB Live nd it's SPDIF connections:

http://www.plasma-online.de/index.html?content=http%3A//www.plasma-online.de/english/help/solutions/spdif_sb_live.html
 
I also have an sblive. I wouldnt advise getting one. It resamples everything to 48khz so you cant get bit perfect transfers at 44.1. Thats why I ended up buying the aopen.
 
Really??

Is it easy to get hold of drivers for the card you have?
I would need drivers for W2000, LINUX, and possibly XP.

I'm starting to have doubts.

I have never heard of the card you have - is it commonly available? Does it have digital connections on the outside, or are they on the card?

What are the effects that you have noticed in the audio as a result of the resampling?

Sorry to ask so many questions...
 
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cmi8738 cards are very common. Other examples include the hercules muse, terratec aureon fun (not sure if either of these cards uses the digital inputs - not all models have them) and maudio dio2448. All use the same cmedia 8738 chipset. Thats why I can use the maudio drivers if you new low latency asio drivers.

I dont know where you live but www.pricewatch.com has both the aopen AW850D and aw850 deluxe listed (search for aw850). My AW850 deluxe has optical and coaxial inputs and outputs on a separate module that takes up a pci slot in the case. More info can be found at www.aopen.com and www.cmedia.com.tw

Whatever you do dont get a sblive like I did. They resample everything (badly) to 48khz and are limited to 16bits. Thats not a problem if you work at 48khz but most people use 44.1. The cmi8738 cards allow 16 and 24 bit and 44/48khz sample rates with no resampling.

If you want to spend a little more you can get a pro card like an m-audio dio2496 (for both optical and coaxial i/o) or m-audio audiophile (if you only need coaxial). I use an Echo Mia. Probably overkill for your purposes though as you only want to transfer the final mix.
 
Hi alfalfa,

I'm living in Spain now, but I dart accross to the UK occaisonally.

Well, I think I'm convinced - if it not only does the reseampling, but does it badly, then I suppose thats it.

I will be mastering from a VS840GX - I can't remember if the output is 44.1 or 48. I was mastering to DAT, but the DAT handles both - I ought to know which I used, but as I could never go straight to CD without going analogue, it wasn't that relevant.

What is the recoding format? MP3, WAV, custom.... etc?
 
Not sure where you can get aopen in europe (its a pretty common brand though). Check the aopen website for the distributor in your country. I know you can get Trust soundcards in the UK (www.trust.com ) that use the same 8738 chip.

Dont really understand what you mean by recording format ... depends on your software I guess ... but just about everything records to wavefiles I would have thought.
 
Yea, it was a muddy question - a moment of confusion. I was thinking at the time that mastering at 48 only to drop to 44.1 for recording onto a CD was pointless - it's going to have to be converted anyway somewhere in the chain.

I have found a dealer in Madrid now - I've asked for prices. My only concern is that I can't see Windows2000 drivers on the AOpen website for that card - they say they have them, but in the downloads section, they are not there.

Cheers!
 
I dont think this dealer has the AOpen card, so I'm looking at the Terratec DMX Xfire 1024.

Is there anything dodgy about this card? It seems ok. The digital input is on the board again - this seems fairly common.

Are there standard adapters out there to bring the input out of the PC box?
 
The digital out is fixed at 48khz which makes me suspect that like most consumer soundcards it resamples everything to 48khz. I would probably avoid it.
 
Right, so a card with a fixed output rate most likely resamples its digital input. That makes sense.

Well alfalfa, you're opening my eyes quite a bit to this subject - thanks very much. I'll continue my search a wiser man!

I was so eager to just get my hands on any card with a digital input (as I have a few projects pending I'm eager to do) that I almost jumped in feet first without looking.

Cheers man!
 
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