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M-Audio Audiophile 192 or ESI Juli ?

L

LinuxGuru

Well-Known Member
Hi!

I would like to ask your opinion - which audio card to choose. M-Audio Audiophile 2496, 192 or ESI Juli? The last 2 seems to be very comparable. M-Audio 2496 is 96KHz only but I am not sure anyone can distinguish 96 and 192 KHz DACs in blind tests. The advantage of ESI Juli is advertised Linux compatibility. M-Audio may work and may not, depending on system, linux distro and lack.

Anyone have experience with these cards? None of them is 5+1 or 7+1, but they will be used only for music playback and audio measurements anyway (on dual boot Linux/Win box).

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496.html
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile192.html

http://www.esi-audio.com/products/julia/

Thanks in advance for any suggestion(s).
 
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I have the m audio card and it does do really well. Took me a bit to figure out the mixer etc.

I have looked at the ESI card for a project I am working on. I came across them by finding a used a audiotrak usb sound card which is also ESI. They seem to have some really nice stuff but I cannot find a whole lot of information about their products. From what I have found ith my usb soundcard I wouldnt have a problem assuming their stuff would be quality also.
 
I just got an M-Audio 192 and after figuring out how to make it work (worst product documentation ever) I have noticed that at higher volumes when no music is playing I can hear static that coincides with me moving the mouse, or opening programs. Any clues on how to eliminate this?

So far I think the sound is very sterile, my old Santa Cruz card from 9 years ago had a much warmer sound to it, although it only supports 16 bit 44khz recording. Anyway, maybe it will get better once I isolate the noise.
 
I have the same effect with built-in Intel, Realtec, and PCI SB Live. It is noise from power supply and mainboard. I do not know how to get rid of it.
 
That may be a result of a conflict with your graphics driver. Have you tried assigning a different IRQ or a different PCI slot?
 
Well, I wanted an outboard one but my problem was I can't make heads or tails of all this stuff when doing online research. Most of it was MIDI this, 4 channel that...hell I am not trying to open a recording studio, I just want a good 2 channel DAC/ADC so I can record vinyl at 24/96 as a FLAC and play it back as such. Even this card seems to be geared towards musicians rather than users (I had to go down to guitar center and get some crappy adaptors to get it hooked up to my preamp which has RCA jacks not 1/4" TRS, I thought they may be adding noise cause they are very shoddy contruction).

Maybe I should just box this thing up and send it back and try to get a decent USB external. As for different IRQ, I haven't dealt with doing that since the days of DOS where I had to set my modem up. I am using a Dell Optiplex so it only has one available PCI slot, the other is one of those newer small PCI (express?). Anyway, I am really thinking my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sounded better. I have an older bare bones home built PC (P4) that is about 5 years old, I will try it in that and see how it goes.
 
Yes, the TRS connectors are "pro" audio balanced I/O and you would be better suited with RCA. I use an M-Audio 1010LT which has unbalanced RCA female connectors. The 1010LT would be overkill because it has more channels than you need. I used to use a Santa Cruz as well and they are good sounding cards. However, the M-Audio I'm now using sounds much better. Many home studio folks have left behind PCI cards because of two reasons: PCI is a dying interface and USB or firewire technology is up to date whereas PCI cards on the market are old technology.
 
Ok...after looking at the USB interfaces by M-Audio, and E-Mu I am even more confused. They all appear to be for "mics" or "guitars" thus indicating they are "mono" only devices. Can anyone recommend a basic stereo USB interface in the sub-$200 price range that will do 24/96 recording?
 
2 monos equals stereo. Check out the Edirol UA-1EX.

I cannot personally vouch for its performance but it seems to be just what you need.
 
GOYA said:
That may be a result of a conflict with your graphics driver. Have you tried assigning a different IRQ or a different PCI slot?
Click to expand...

I agree on the IRQ thing.

About the MIDI thing; it stands for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" and is a control protocol used to control instruments like a keyboard. It has nothing to do with sound itself, but just about all desent soundcards has a MIDI interface - so if you get the need to control something with MIDI you can do it with there produckt.

If you stick to the Audio Interfaces you can't go wrong, even they also have MIDI.

Next Drivers!: They are vital for good results, there has been many "super" soundcards that never got to shine due to lack of/or bad drivers. If you're main use of the card is in Linux, make sure thet have good Linux support. Do a read up in there support forum and also check amature recording forums like http://www.tweakheadz.com/
 
Well, I have boxed it up and am returning it tomorrow (we'll see how long it takes me to get a refund from the online outfit I ordered it through). I am now comparing USB models. That Edirol looks interesting but the reviews say it has poor construction. I am going to steer clear of any M-Audio USB products, according to most reviews they apparently either work fantastic or not at all.
 
Well...I think I may have found my sound card. It is the one integrated into my motherboard. I figured it was crap from day one and installed my old Santa Cruz and have used that since (which is only 16-bit/48khz). Just for grins I enabled the onboard sound card, ADI 1984 High Definition Audio, and it sounded pretty good. What's more it is capable of recording/playing 24bit/192khz and this is confirmed by the datasheet I found from the company. Specwise it isn't as great as M-Audio or E-Mu but the damn thing works and it is easy to configure.

I recorded a couple of tracks from my old Technics SL-1700 using a cheap TCC phono preamp I had. It didn't sound too bad. Now that I know it works I am going to buy a good stable platform for my SL-1210 and will probably buy a decent phono stage. I would still like to get some type of external solution but I didn't realize USB was limited to 48khz. Maybe firewire...at any rate this will buy me more time to research.
 
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