Yet Another Sound Card Poll

Your favorite in any application...

  • ECHO Mia

    Votes: 18 16.4%

  • DELTA 44

    Votes: 47 42.7%

  • AUDIOPHILE 2496

    Votes: 45 40.9%
  • Total voters
    110
B

Bighand

New member
Another Sound Card Poll <$229

I've spent hours "rubbing" and reading the search engine.
Very useful info people... thanks.

I need to retire the SB AWE(ful) card and get some 96 capability.

So here are the well known cards I would like to choose from:
I already have a Mackie mixer so 2 in and 2 outs will suffice.

Audiophile 2496 ($160..... non *balanced in's)
Delta 44 ($229..... non **digital i/o)
Echo Mia ($199 has both features)

*I have about 25 feet of cable from the mixer-is this a concern?
Least amount of noise is desired.
**My Boss GT-6(guitar processor) is the only digital piece I own.
I can live without digital.

Other gear info:
Intel PIII-450, 256 ram
Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro
DBX 166XL (I'm not a Tom C plant-lol-wink)
Quadraverb
Pro Acid 2.0
SP-C1( " " Alan " ")
SHURE SM-58
Cool Edit
Pro Audio 9(bad latency/ I do not use with SB)
No MIDI

Are there any other features of these cards that I should consider?

The Delta has a break out box, the overtones from the search engine lead me to believe there is less noise associated with this type of device. True? Is it when the converters are on the card that these problems occur?

Thanks in advance. Sorry for the long post.
Hopefully this post will give other newbs the info they need via the search function.

Bighand
(See you tonight Tom-pick you up a 8pm,
oh, and Alan's bringing the cigars):)
 
Last edited:
The converters on the Delta44 are on the card, not the breakout box.

I would imagine that you would benefit from a balanced line between your mixer and soundcard if you're talking about 25'.

The Echo Mia is has both balanced inputs and digital I/O, but no breakout box and only 2 analog inputs. The Delta44 has four analog ins and outs, plus a breakout. In this case the breakout is just for convenience, you'll be able to use 1/4" TRS for one thing.

You might consider the Delta66 which as 4 analog ins & outs, plus two channels of SPDIF.

Slackmaster 2000
 
the Audiophile has better converters than the 44/66......
Click to expand...


Say who? Isn't the audiophile cheaper then the Delta series? WHy is the Audiophile cheaper, but better quality?

I confuse! :confused:
 
well, the audiophile only has 2 A/D converters and 2 D/A converters, while the 44 has 4 A/D and 4 D/A....more converters equals more $$$...also the 44 has a breakout box...again, more $$$....

the Audiophile uses the AKM AK4528, while the Delta 44 and Delta 66 uses the AK4524.....the 4528 has an 8 db improvement in dynamic range......
 
not technically...the converters will still be on the pci card....which isnt always a bad thing...for instance the Aardvark Direct Pro 2496 has a breakout box, but the converters are still on the pci card...supposedly this makes for more noise but when done right it isnt a biggie...and believe me Delta and Aardvark do it right....

what i do is have my J-Station, 2 Joe Meek VC3Q preamps, DMP2 preamp, and Autocom compressor on a small desktop rack.....i keep the j-Station hooked up to the s/pdif of the Audiophile and when i wanna switch between the Joe Meek and the DMP2 preamps, i just unplug from on into the other, but leave the other end in the Audiophile...that way im not having to plug and unplug behind the computer....it works for me....

though admitted im very close to getting a 1010lt.....i wanna get into recording bands....with a 1010lt and one more stereo preamp i can record 10 tracks simultaneously.....
 
I wouldn't get too worried about it. The 4524 is just an older ADAC. The 4528 has a few more db of S/N than the 4524 (perhaps due to having differential inputs), but that's just on paper, and real life performance will depend on the implementation. I've actually read that the audiophile has 6db less dynamic range than the Delta44 & Delta66 in the real world . And the guy who runs PCAVTECH.COM claims that you can't do better than -85db in an unbalanced system (as a rule).

But whatever. This is all probably pretty pointless. I'm willing to bet that the Delta44 and Audiophile are of very similar quality overall.

Note: many systems use these two AKM converters (terratec ewx2496, Echo MIA, Sekd Siena, Hoontek DSP24 and C-port, Seasound Soloist), and they will all perform differently in the real world.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster2K said:

Note: many systems use these two AKM converters (terratec ewx2496, Echo MIA, Sekd Siena, Hoontek DSP24 and C-port, Seasound Soloist), and they will all perform differently in the real world.

Slackmaster 2000
Click to expand...

Based on this statement, the Echo MIA uses the same chip, so one would lean toward the added features of this card(Balanced in's and SPDIF i/o). Now, if I could just find this "real world" place people keep talking about.

I'll be running the Mackie mains out to the balanced "in's"(25') then the card "outs" back to the Mackie and utilize the "alt 3/4" for headphone monitoring.... like I do now... Just with less noise and higher conversion capability. :)

I was hoping this post would bring more info than I was looking for and it did. Thanks for your help Slack and Gidge.
 
GIDGE...off the subject

With your J-station via spdif, do you detect noise, for instance, on a sustained note without too much distortion/effects? Whether its my bass or guitars, I've been noticing some odd (slight) artifacts...not just natural noise, but something akin to an unatural decay at the very end of the note. I doubt it could be detected on an actual recording since it would be buried in a mix. But when your working on a sound with J-edit, with just your monitors, it is noticable.

Any thoughts?
 
UUuuuhhh....

err...

O.K... That didn't clear a thing up... first the Audiophile's convertors are better.. then the Audiophiles convertors are worse (in the "real world") and then they're the same.... *ack*

So what gives... I'm also looking at getting one of these three cards (the $200 range) and I still don't know which one, if any, is actually "better" than the others. I don't need digital (at the moment),.. I have one behringer mixer that I need to run into my computer so I can record on N-track,.. so which of these do I use? :confused:

WATYF
 
You may also want to look into the Maya MK2 for about $109

24/96 2ins / 2outs i believe...balanced 1/4" inputs...

thinking about this card was hoping to get some reviews or opinions about it first tho =p
 
The point is is that you are not recording with just the converters. You have pre-amps and cables and microphones etc. and all of these things will affect your recording performance regardless of an on-paper s/n ratio. Then you also have to realize that you are sticking those converters into an environment filled with all sort of electro magnetic energy and how the actual chips are made and installed on the board will have an affect as well. Which is why most likely you are not going to actually hear any real differences between the two cards made by m-audio, as the manufatcuring processes are going to be very similar, but you will hear a difference between an m-audio and a hoontech card because they are made differently.
 
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