Usb sound card

[Bizzie]

I have been thinking of buying a usb soundcard so I can record my records onto my laptop and tranfer to CD and DVDA.
I want to be able to record at the highest possible rate to try and preserve the vinyl sound so I did a search and found this http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/s...oduct_id/15384
Does anyone know if its any good.

[Andrew]

Might be a useful info.

About a year or so ago I bought the M-Audio Transit USB, which I have found to do fine job for what I need. I paid about £70 plus delivery, so this one seems like a good deal, but then hi-tech always comes down in price over time.

cheers,

-- Andrew

[James D]

I have just gone through an evaluation process for this myself and found that under £200 the E-MU 0202 was the best followed by the E-MU 0404 (which has more features like phantom power built in). Both are USB 2 and can handle stereo 24bit/192KHz bi-directionally.

James

[Global]

Hi James

Do you have a view on the comparison between the E-Mu 0202 and the M-Audio 24/96 PCI card?

I use the M-Audio at the moment and will be changing in a few weeks.

Is the USB solution definitely to be preferred? I think I would like to get the DAC/ADC outside the computer.

Mark

[Bizzie]

Originally Posted by James D

I have just gone through an evaluation process for this myself and found that under £200 the E-MU 0202 was the best followed by the E-MU 0404 (which has more features like phantom power built in). Both are USB 2 and can handle stereo 24bit/192KHz bi-directionally.

James

I thought the spec looked quite good as all the others I've looked at will only record at 24bit/96khz and I really want to record at the highest level possible.

The trouble is sometimes the highest spec does not always work out the best solution and thats why I asked if anyone had used one.

[colin.hepburn]

Hi All
This Link may be of interest usb converter http://diyparadise.com/usb.html

[James D]

Mark,

Recently John Atwood has been measuring soundcards and comparing how they perform. He has recently published the E-MU 1616m results in this series of tests elsewhere (unfortunately not on an open forum) and the E-MU outperformed the cards shown here. My tests used the 1616m as a baseline system and I preferred the 0202 to the 1616 (which was a surprise!). I would expect the E-Mu to outperform the M-Audio measurably and sonically. My son has a M-Audio Audiophile USB for comparision and it isn't that close to the E-MU except on 16 bit 44.1kHz where it is almost the equal.

Getting the ADC/DAC out of the computer is to be preferred at this price level (and probably at all price points..) as there is no budget for proper shielding and rf interference suspression on the power rails and also mechanical vibration...

In theory Firewire has an advantage over USB2 in that it does less processing of the signal over the link but the E-Mu cards which are USB 2 only, outperform the equivalent Firewire cards so implementation still counts more. Don't buy a USB1.1 card now-a-days - the link is too slow and system latencies are too high.

If you need a clincher the software pack with the E-Mu beasties is second-to-none

Bizzie,

There are reports on some of the prof. audio forums of the 24bit/192kHz mode not being 100% solid on all systems - I have found it fine with my laptops but it seems not all motherboards and i/o chipsets are happy to run stereo 24/192 with full duplex.

Colin,

That one is a DAC only - Bizzie needs the ADC (analogue to digital converter) to record from other sources too.

As an aside, testing yesterday showed that the Behringer ECM8000 measurement mic when used as a general purpose mic is almost the equal of an AKG C1000. Considering the three times price difference the ECM8000 is a bargin and its calabrated for measurement use too

James

[Bizzie]

Originally Posted by James D

Bizzie,

There are reports on some of the prof. audio forums of the 24bit/192kHz mode not being 100% solid on all systems - I have found it fine with my laptops but it seems not all motherboards and i/o chipsets are happy to run stereo 24/192 with full duplex.



James

Thanks James
This is the sort of information I was after, specs don't always tell the full story.
Am I right in thinking that if it wouldn't work at 24bit/192khz with my computer I could lower the sample rate to one it is happy with, I really would like to use the higher rate but don't want to end up with something that I can't use at all.

[Ianm2]

I'm going for the creative after reading other reviews on it, you can pick it up for around £50. When I come to build a p.c. again, which may be a while.

I don't know if it will suit your needs tho'.

[James D]

Bizzie,

Running the E-Mu at 24/96 should be no problem at all.

James