Help me choose between these sound cards

[dreyleon]

I have a soft cap of $200 and I have no audio interface hardware at all right now. I just need to be able to record guitar and mic input one track at a time if necessary. I'll mostly be using samples and loops in Sonar 2 XL on windows 2000 from Unity DS-1 and my AN1X.

I've narrowed the choices down to these four. I'm including links so anybody who has knowledge in this area, but doesn't know these particular items can give me their opinion.

M-Audio Audiophile (http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/audiophile.php)
Echo Mia (http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/Mia/index.php)
Ego Sys WaveTerminal 192M (http://www.esi-pro.com/esi-pro/eng/product/wt192m/wt192m.html)
Ego Sys Waveterminal 192X (http://www.esi-pro.com/esi-pro/eng/product/wt192x/wt192x.html)

If anybody has any insight into any of these cards that might make my decision easier, I appreciate it. Or if you know of something else that does what these do or better for the same price.

The biggest difference between all of these, as far as I can tell right now, is that the Mia and Audiophile need a preamp and the Ego Sys have it built in. I also don't know what the difference is between a stereo and moo input. I thought all instrument input was mono.

Thanks.

[Alan]

You might want to figure in what chipset/board your using as far as driver compatibility.For what it's worth,I'm getting excellent results with the Sis chipset/w Athlon and Audiophile combo.

[Robert D]

Yes, as Alan stated, their are compatability issues with certain motherboard chipset/soundcard combos. If you know what chipset your motherboard is using, or what make and model of motherboard you are using, it would be a good idea to include that info.
Cheers, RD

[dreyleon]

I'm currently using an SiS chipset with an AMD processor. I'm planning to switch to an nFroce2 chipset soon, though.

But, really, is that the biggest difference between these sound cards?

[Robert D]

It is if you end up with an incompatible setup and clicks and pops in your audio. Then it will suddenly seem like a very big deal.
I can't speak for the others, but I've been very happy with my Delta card, a Delta 66. As well as waiting for opinions on the others, you may want to use the search function to dig up any past opinions and problems with these cards here in the forum.
Regards, RD

[Alan]

Originally posted by dreyleon:

But, really, is that the biggest difference between these sound cards? I don't recall anyone stating any difference one way or the other in this thread.But the chipset driver issue is not something to be taken lighly.For instance,Echo and Digidesign claim their cards or any card sporting a Motorola DSP has compatibility issues with SiS chipsets.I can't confirm this nor can I confirm wether they tested their cards on the latest SiS incarnation.But I can tell you from experience that M-Audio and RME stuff works great on both SiS and NForce.I can't vouch for the drivers on the other cards mentioned.



[This message has been edited by Alan (edited 11-20-2002).]

[1manband]

Will you have any need for MIDI or will all be audio? The MIA and the EgoSys don't have MIDI in/out.

[quattro_xxph]

Originally posted by Alan:
You might want to figure in what chipset/board your using as far as driver compatibility.For what it's worth,I'm getting excellent results with the Sis chipset/w Athlon and Audiophile combo.

Mr Alan, I too use an SiS chipset (SiS 620) with Pentium 3 and I am getting pops and clicks with the Audiophile (and yes I have tried virtually everything form BIOS adjustments to the system.ini)

What SiS chipset are you using?

[dreyleon]

Originally posted by 1manband:
Will you have any need for MIDI or will all be audio? The MIA and the EgoSys don't have MIDI in/out.

I definitly need midi, but I can buy a separate midi 1x1 for around $40 for my purposes. I can get all the cards listed for well under $200 and will nudge my soft cap of $200 if I have to.

I'm actually planning on switching to nForce within a month or so.

[Alan]

Originally posted by quattro_xxph:
Mr Alan, I too use an SiS chipset (SiS 620) with Pentium 3 and I am getting pops and clicks with the Audiophile (and yes I have tried virtually everything form BIOS adjustments to the system.ini)

What SiS chipset are you using? I'm using the SiS 735 for AMD.Obviously a different chipset altogether.Are you using 2K/XP and the latest WDM?Also the Quatro is USB I'm pretty sure,so you might be getting problems on that end.

[dreyleon]

First of all, thanks for keeping the discussion lively. This is the only audio forum I've found where people actually post halfway frequently.

My latest concern has been over stereo input. I haven't seen any card in the $200 that can accept stereo input. I sent an email to Ego Sys asking if the mono inputs on the waveterminal 192x could be used together to record in stereo and this was the reply:

"HI!

WT192X has only two mono inputs.

Best regards,
Chris"

That didn't answer my question. Does anybody know if the Audiophile or Mia can record in stereo? At this point I'm looking for pure DAC quality and compatibility with Win2K and Sonar 2.

[Alan]

I record with the Audiophile in stereo all the time.In Sonar I have a choice wether to choose mono or stereo(inputs),that goes for spdif as well as analog.I'm pretty sure you can on the Mia as well,the inputs on that card I'm pretty sure are TRS.

[Robert D]

Stereo is really two mono signals that are related. All pro audio cards that I'm aware of have mono inputs, and you use two for stereo. In the Delta control panel, as I'm guessing is the case with the others, you can gang faders together to make them act as one stereo fader, and I/O is logically grouped into pairs of mono ins and outs, as in "In 1/2", "Out 3/4", etc.
Aside from versitility, there's another reason they don't use stereo inputs. Pro soundcards almost always use Balanced I/O, usually on 1/4" TRS jacks. Balanced requires 3 conductors, and stereo requires 3 conductors. Balanced stereo would require 5 conductors (sharing ground), and there's no such jack in use for audio, at least that I know of.
So now you know, RD

[dreyleon]

Cool. Thanks for the response.

I've narrowed my choice down to two options. I'm going to get either an Audiophile + cheap Behringer mixer or an Aardvark LX6. I have a bad feeling about Ego Sys and the Mia + preamp + midi would be close to the same cost as Aardvark which seems to have stronger WDM drivers.

Any opinions on which of the two options would be better?

Thanks.

[dreyleon]

Bump for suggestions.

Aardvark LX6 or Audiophile + Behringer mixer?

[Sui]

Audiophile

[Lord Wan]

Aardvard LX6 + Behringer ( MX-2642 ) :

Why ? Cause you will need a pre-amp and phantom 48V power for mics... A mixer has that.
Why an MX-2642 ? Cause it'has 4 sub-groups ( that makes up 2 stereo path ). So you can record on the four LX6 inputs WHILE LISTENING TO PREVIOUS TAKES OR MIDI DEVICES routed to the main monitor output of the mixer.

[1manband]

One more vote for the Audiophile.