Which Soundcard

[NeedAdvice]

Hello Everyone,

I have a $115 gift certificate to Amazon.com and want to get a sound card for use with recording my guitar. It looks like I can get the following three cards at Amazon:

KaySound Audiotrak Maya44 MKII - $129.99
M-Audio - Delta 410 PCI - $129.99
Midiman Audiofile 2496 - $149.99

The only card that I have seen recommended at this forum is the one made by Midiman, so I am leaning towards that one. Does anyone know how these cards compare to each other? It looks like the M-Audio Delta 410 has the best specs, but is also cheaper than the Audiofile and this doesn't make sense to me.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

[brzilian]

Midiman is M-Audio.

The 410 is so cheap because it is a discontinued product.

[NeedAdvice]

brzilian, thanks for the reply. Sorry, I didn't realize that they were the same company. I guess since it is discontinued it is not as good as the Audiophile? Of the three cards, which do you think would be better?

[howie15]

I vote for the Audiophile 2496. Solid card for that level. It works well with almost any computer and sounds great for the price. One of the better price vs. performance items at that price. I use one in my PC with Sonar for MIDI and basic audio and it works like a charm.

Howie

[brzilian]

Either the Audiophile 2496 or an Echo Audio MiaMIDI if you need 1/4" balanced inputs rather than RCA.

[NeedAdvice]

Howie15, Have you had any noticable noise when recording since the Audiophile doesn't have balanced inputs?

brzillian - Yeah, I actually was originally looking for the Echo MiaMidi because a friend highly recommended it, but unfortunately I can't get it through Amazon.com. I need to use Amazon because I already have a $115 gift certificate. I would like to have the balanced inputs, but for my level of recording I am hoping it won't matter much.

[Matthew Skinner]

Have a look at the www.esi-pro.com juli@ card as its higher end and has balenced and unbalnced io JAck and RCA, +4 and -10 support.
You should find that it is about the same price.

[howie15]

NA- The card is pretty quiet for what it is. I think most of my noise came from the cables I was using and a bit from the Mackie mixer. It's not as quiet as my 002, but that's a whole seperate category and can't be compared to a card in this dollar range.

Matthew- I hadn't heard of that Juli card, although I like the features. If I was still in the market for a card with those requirements, I would give that a serious look. Thanks for the heads-up on that one.

Howie