what's a good quality (and value) soundcard?

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amonte

amonte

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I'm looking for a low- to mid- price sound card to fill in on my pc until I can afford to get something more upscale (like the Tascam controller or the EZBus).

Ideally, this card should run in Win98 and WinXP. Something that can work with Cakewalk for now and Sonar in the future...Full-duplex is obviously a must. While four simaltaneous tracks at one would be a plus, I can get by with two for now.

The two that have caught my attention so far are the Echo Mia and the Aardvark LX6, but I am open to suggestion. Any ideas out there?
 
Audiophile 24/96 $150
24bit
2 analog in & out...spdif in & out...midi connect
Excellent entry level card for the price
but limited ins & outs
 
yeah, this one keeps popping up...any others?

I know some people aren't going to understand my attitude with Midiman products, but I had such a bad experience with the DMAN (search these forums to see what I mean), I doubt that I will ever buy another product of theirs - and if I do, it won't be for a while...
 
I just bought a Terratec 6Fire 24/96 and am very happy so far. ($249) I particularly like the front-panel module (size of a CD drive) that allows for easy access to all types of in & out ports. I'm using Windows XP & Home Studio XL and have had no problems recording & playing back multiple tracks.
 
amonte said:
yeah, this one keeps popping up...any others?

I know some people aren't going to understand my attitude with Midiman products, but I had such a bad experience with the DMAN (search these forums to see what I mean), I doubt that I will ever buy another product of theirs - and if I do, it won't be for a while...
Click to expand...

Your loss.

I've been using my AP2496 for a year with no problems on 2 systems and with 2000, XP Home and Pro.
 
brzilian said:
Your loss.

I've been using my AP2496 for a year with no problems on 2 systems and with 2000, XP Home and Pro.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you haven't had any problems with their products, but I had nothing but headaches. Multiple drivers, complete system reinstalls (reformated the drive, reinstalled the OS and started over), different pc's - the DMAN NEVER worked - not once. They're tech support people were USELESS. I sent it back and they claimed they sent me a different one - yet it had the same results. From what I hear about them on this board, my experience isn't the "norm" for them - and for the sake of everyone on this board who owns their products, I'm glad. But after spending a few hundred on a DMAN, I got 0 hours of effective use out of it. There are plenty of quality manufacturers on the market who actually stand behind their products. My loss? I don't think so.
 
amonte said:
I'm glad you haven't had any problems with their products, but I had nothing but headaches. Multiple drivers, complete system reinstalls (reformated the drive, reinstalled the OS and started over), different pc's - the DMAN NEVER worked - not once. They're tech support people were USELESS. I sent it back and they claimed they sent me a different one - yet it had the same results. From what I hear about them on this board, my experience isn't the "norm" for them - and for the sake of everyone on this board who owns their products, I'm glad. But after spending a few hundred on a DMAN, I got 0 hours of effective use out of it. There are plenty of quality manufacturers on the market who actually stand behind their products. My loss? I don't think so.
Click to expand...

Let's see...first off, you're talking about a discontinued product that admittedly has problems...

The Audiophile is a currently supported card that has proven to be a competent piece of hardware with as many people posting nothing but praise and good experiences with it as people posting negative comments of the DMAN (none of which I have ever seen in the year I have been a regular participant on this site).

Since when does one bad product from a company dictate the quality of the rest of their later products? If that were the case, nobody would be buying Honda's today based on what their product was like in the 70's.

When you finally make a valid logical point, let me know.

Also, when there are pleanty of manufacturers who have proven to give even poorer support to their product (Aardvark for one - users were left hanging for over a year waiting for working WDM drivers for 2000/XP), you come off as someone who has no clue what they're talking about.
 
First of all, I don't see how me posting an opinion about a product or a company is taken as a personal attack to you or your current setup - I wasn't being sarcastic or nasty - I was sincere when I said I'm glad you aren't having problems with your hardware.

Granted, the DMAN is not one of the current M-Audio products - but if you actually took the time to read the message you'll get my point - it NEVER worked for me - not in XP, not in 98, not ever. That's totally unacceptable.

I'm not questioning the quality of M-Audio's current products, but at the same time, I'm not going to get burned twice. Aardvark left people hanging, but at least they DID build drivers for their product - this is an approach the M-Audio completely ignored, essentially screwing people over.

So explain to me how I come off as someone who doesn't know what I am talking about? I guess having an opinion on this message board isn't allowed, unless of course it's the same as everyone else's. I posted my opinion, and backed it up with FACTS - why that opens me up for a personal attack, I don't know. I thought the whole point of this messageboard was so that people who have a common interest can get together and discuss recording and the equipment involved in recording.
 
M-Audio Delta 44.

It's just like the Audiophile but it comes with 4 in 4 out break out box...

Mine is great. Go through ebay for one; I picked one off there for about $200. I'm using Win XP and Cubase SX and everything is cool...
 
Yep delta 44, or buy the delta 1010 now, and your covered for a while
 
I think the most incredible value in sound cards right now is without a doubt the Delta 1010lt for $249 ......
 
how do the 1010 and 1010LT compare? the 1010 is just about twice as expensive, but as far as i can tell, it seems the only difference is that the LT doesn't have the pretty breakout box, and has primarly unbalanced connectors.

beyond that, are they identical?
 
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