PC Peripherals Which USB Soundcard?
- Thread starter superczar
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superczar
Keymaster
The problem with the EMU 0202 is I won't be able to get it before mid-August, whereas I can get the Transit this Sunday ....And I am getting really impatient now 
Specwise, the Transit and EMU 0202 look fairly similar..comparable THDs, ASIO support on both..Maybe I'll go for the Transit for now...DO you fellas think the Transit would be markedly inferior to the EMU 0202 and the EMU would be worth the wait till August?
Specwise, the Transit and EMU 0202 look fairly similar..comparable THDs, ASIO support on both..Maybe I'll go for the Transit for now...DO you fellas think the Transit would be markedly inferior to the EMU 0202 and the EMU would be worth the wait till August?
superczar
Keymaster
Nahi re..have it hooked to my Mac Mini which has got far better DACs than the crappy Realtek Audio on my main rig
Now the reason why I asked this question is since the M-audio and EMU specs are pretty much the same, would there be an appreciable difference?
As of now am planning to borrow x86s X-Fi Plats for a day or so(They are lying with Saiyan) assuming he agrees, and try them out today :devil2:
^^ Do post how it performed 
and yeah if possible test it today only. even if it sounds bad dont say here say on pm LOL j/k .
btw if ur thinking of getting rid of any of ur special DIY stuff look at the poor me i'll happily buy em after listening i seriously nee some cheap but good speakers to make my x-fi worth .
and yeah if possible test it today only. even if it sounds bad dont say here say on pm LOL j/k .btw if ur thinking of getting rid of any of ur special DIY stuff look at the poor me
i'll happily buy em after listening i seriously nee some cheap but good speakers to make my x-fi worth .
superczar
Keymaster
Anyway, here are the final contenders that I can get this Sunday (Nooo, i don't have the patience to wait till next month )
for a while i toyed around with the idea of gettng a PCI EMU 0404 and move the Desktop in my room but some amount of lurking around hydrogenaudio, stereophile and Head-fi forums, it seems that a firewire /USB based DAC is the best solution as they isolate nearly all electrical interefrence from within the PC chassis
So the contenders:
M-Audio Audiophile USB
M-Audio Transit USB
Xitel ProLink
The transit as well as audiophile seem to be popular yet no-nonsense choices on most hi-fi audio forums and both seem to have sweet reviews too....The DAC chip on both of them is the same but the audiophile benefits further by having an external power supply thereby isolating the PC altogether..ALso the Audiophile offer MIDI -Ins (That I do not need though)
I guess it's going to be one of these two then.....
)for a while i toyed around with the idea of gettng a PCI EMU 0404 and move the Desktop in my room but some amount of lurking around hydrogenaudio, stereophile and Head-fi forums, it seems that a firewire /USB based DAC is the best solution as they isolate nearly all electrical interefrence from within the PC chassis
So the contenders:
M-Audio Audiophile USB
M-Audio Transit USB
Xitel ProLink
The transit as well as audiophile seem to be popular yet no-nonsense choices on most hi-fi audio forums and both seem to have sweet reviews too....The DAC chip on both of them is the same but the audiophile benefits further by having an external power supply thereby isolating the PC altogether..ALso the Audiophile offer MIDI -Ins (That I do not need though)
I guess it's going to be one of these two then.....
superczar
Keymaster
Okie...here is what I did last night.....
Test setup
Common equipment and software
Marantz Reference Integrated Amplifier PM17 mkII
Phase Tech V12 (2X7" VDT woofer & Midrange 2X 1" Domes)
FLAC (lossless) files of the following:
On every Street - Dire Straits
Sunrise- Norah Jones
ACDs
Metallica: ...And Justice For All
Eagles- HFO
Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms
Contenders:
- x86s Creative X-Fi Platinum set to run in ASIO mode, 44.1 khz/16 bit sampling rate running on a Asus A8V deluxe/Winchester 3200
- Mac Mini's internal audio (Apple custom audio chip + Burr-Brown (? not sure) DACs)
- Just for kicks, the onboard Realtek sound on my Asus A8V
Needless to say , the Realtek Audio chipset was given the boot early on...the sound was muddy to say the least, the background cymbals on the Dire straits sounded like a Pooja room chime and there was barely any distinction between the bass guitar riffs and the pounding of the bass drum (Ok not this bad, but you get the picture)
Needless to say the Creative sounded excellent...
The surprise contender was the Mac Mini though...
Since the Mini supports native core-audio support for 44.1khz- 16/24 bit audio with any up/down sampling, I did have high expectations from it, and the stereo output wasn't at all disappointing...
Sequential testing of the same track over & over again (On every street) didn't help much...The sound was marginally different but I couldn't still point out which sounded better
So I hooked the Mini and the Creative outputs to separate line ins on the Amp,
fired up the same track simultaneously on both, reclined back, and tried switching between the two in short intervals so as to hear the same passage .....
The difference I noticed this time was that the Creative sounded brighter overall, though the bass on the Mini sounded more controlled...So I guess in the end, it's a matter of personal taste...
BTW Joe, you don't have to worry at all..
this has Perhaps something to do with the fact that the Creative is tuned more towards a 5.1 setup and I had switched off all digital processing on the EAX chip and was using it in ASIO mode thereby just utilizing the DACs on the card, so I had effectively switched off 90% of the circuitry on your card
Also, later, I switched back to the regular kernel mixer and enabled the digital processing by switching on what creative terms as 24 bit crystallizer
and that made the whole sound output feel richer and more enveloping...
Beware though that enabling this killed the staging on the cleaner songs like Sunrise.... and Broethers in Arms
Though it did make a profound impact on some of the low bit-rate (160 and 128 kbps) MP3s I tried on later
Disclaimer: I am no golden eared stereophile, not even silver, maybe more brass eared...
Anyway, the original question still remains...M-Audio Audiophile/M-Audio Transit, or wait longer and get a USB EMU 0202?
Test setup
Common equipment and software
Marantz Reference Integrated Amplifier PM17 mkII
Phase Tech V12 (2X7" VDT woofer & Midrange 2X 1" Domes)
FLAC (lossless) files of the following:
On every Street - Dire Straits
Sunrise- Norah Jones
ACDs
Metallica: ...And Justice For All
Eagles- HFO
Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms
Contenders:
- x86s Creative X-Fi Platinum set to run in ASIO mode, 44.1 khz/16 bit sampling rate running on a Asus A8V deluxe/Winchester 3200
- Mac Mini's internal audio (Apple custom audio chip + Burr-Brown (? not sure) DACs)
- Just for kicks, the onboard Realtek sound on my Asus A8V
Needless to say , the Realtek Audio chipset was given the boot early on...the sound was muddy to say the least, the background cymbals on the Dire straits sounded like a Pooja room chime and there was barely any distinction between the bass guitar riffs and the pounding of the bass drum (Ok not this bad, but you get the picture)
Needless to say the Creative sounded excellent...
The surprise contender was the Mac Mini though...
Since the Mini supports native core-audio support for 44.1khz- 16/24 bit audio with any up/down sampling, I did have high expectations from it, and the stereo output wasn't at all disappointing...
Sequential testing of the same track over & over again (On every street) didn't help much...The sound was marginally different but I couldn't still point out which sounded better
So I hooked the Mini and the Creative outputs to separate line ins on the Amp,
fired up the same track simultaneously on both, reclined back, and tried switching between the two in short intervals so as to hear the same passage .....
The difference I noticed this time was that the Creative sounded brighter overall, though the bass on the Mini sounded more controlled...So I guess in the end, it's a matter of personal taste...
BTW Joe, you don't have to worry at all..
this has Perhaps something to do with the fact that the Creative is tuned more towards a 5.1 setup and I had switched off all digital processing on the EAX chip and was using it in ASIO mode thereby just utilizing the DACs on the card, so I had effectively switched off 90% of the circuitry on your card
Also, later, I switched back to the regular kernel mixer and enabled the digital processing by switching on what creative terms as 24 bit crystallizer
and that made the whole sound output feel richer and more enveloping...
Beware though that enabling this killed the staging on the cleaner songs like Sunrise.... and Broethers in Arms
Though it did make a profound impact on some of the low bit-rate (160 and 128 kbps) MP3s I tried on later
Disclaimer: I am no golden eared stereophile, not even silver, maybe more brass eared...
Anyway, the original question still remains...M-Audio Audiophile/M-Audio Transit, or wait longer and get a USB EMU 0202?
superczar
Keymaster
I am having serious doubts now about going in for an external USB solution....
On a pure Analog stereo mode (which is all it supports), the Mac Mini's Audio packed some serious punch to seriously compete if not better the X-Fi Plats (In stereo mode) and effectively blowing the Realtek Integrated to smithereens....
I am not really comparing the X-Fi Plats with the Mini's audio (The X-Fi is a different beast altogether, but on stereo 2 channel mode, I personally preferred the Mini by a narrow margin...)
Now given the fact that the Apple natively supports 44.1 khz (no up/down sampling) , Core Audio means there is no Kmixer $hit to deal with (enabling ASIO mode, manually changing sample rates etc. as on a PC) and it uses premium quality DACs (Wolfson/Burr-Brown depending on the batch)....
So now would it really be worthwhile to go for a EMU 0202 or a M-Audio transit/Audiophile?
On A side note, The X-Fi's 24 bit crystallizer (Whatever that means) did a mean job of restoring the lost punch on 128Kbps MP3s
On a pure Analog stereo mode (which is all it supports), the Mac Mini's Audio packed some serious punch to seriously compete if not better the X-Fi Plats (In stereo mode) and effectively blowing the Realtek Integrated to smithereens....
I am not really comparing the X-Fi Plats with the Mini's audio (The X-Fi is a different beast altogether, but on stereo 2 channel mode, I personally preferred the Mini by a narrow margin...)
Now given the fact that the Apple natively supports 44.1 khz (no up/down sampling) , Core Audio means there is no Kmixer $hit to deal with (enabling ASIO mode, manually changing sample rates etc. as on a PC) and it uses premium quality DACs (Wolfson/Burr-Brown depending on the batch)....
So now would it really be worthwhile to go for a EMU 0202 or a M-Audio transit/Audiophile?
On A side note, The X-Fi's 24 bit crystallizer (Whatever that means) did a mean job of restoring the lost punch on 128Kbps MP3s
superczar said:I am having serious doubts now about going in for an external USB solution....
On a pure Analog stereo mode (which is all it supports), the Mac Mini's Audio packed some serious punch to seriously compete if not better the X-Fi Plats (In stereo mode) and effectively blowing the Realtek Integrated to smithereens....
I am not really comparing the X-Fi Plats with the Mini's audio (The X-Fi is a different beast altogether, but on stereo 2 channel mode, I personally preferred the Mini by a narrow margin...)
Now given the fact that the Apple natively supports 44.1 khz (no up/down sampling) , Core Audio means there is no Kmixer $hit to deal with (enabling ASIO mode, manually changing sample rates etc. as on a PC) and it uses premium quality DACs (Wolfson/Burr-Brown depending on the batch)....
So now would it really be worthwhile to go for a EMU 0202 or a M-Audio transit/Audiophile?
On A side note, The X-Fi's 24 bit crystallizer (Whatever that means) did a mean job of restoring the lost punch on 128Kbps MP3s
LOL. The only way to play audio on an XFi is to enable audio creation mode, enable bit matched playback and disable all EAX crap. Then use foobar in ASIO mode to play. Monstrous difference in quality between using this setup and using the defaults.
superczar
Keymaster
chaos said:
superczar said:
exactly what I did
Audio creation mode is just a fancy mktng name=> ASIO mode with default 44.1/16 sampling rate (Bit matched)...
Monstrous difference between this and the Realtek of course, but as I said before the Mini's Audio chipset was surprisingly good!
^ the realtek sounds like crap compared to any decent audio card.
Anyway I'd suggest you to go for the M audio USB audiophile, it has a really good dynamic range (probably around -104 measured, a littel higher than the PCI counterpart) and I guess you'd probably get over the extra edginess of the m-audio cards, which is like a signature to their sound.
The USB is a good transport option, since it's free from the surrounding electronic noise inside the computer box, and the discrete wallwart is a good option to the switching mode power supply, which is probably known for the ripples.
How much are you getting it for ?
Anyway I'd suggest you to go for the M audio USB audiophile, it has a really good dynamic range (probably around -104 measured, a littel higher than the PCI counterpart) and I guess you'd probably get over the extra edginess of the m-audio cards, which is like a signature to their sound.
The USB is a good transport option, since it's free from the surrounding electronic noise inside the computer box, and the discrete wallwart is a good option to the switching mode power supply, which is probably known for the ripples.
How much are you getting it for ?
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