Audiophile 2496 by MAudio - digital or analog?
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Posted on Dec 24, 2002 08:05 am
tincanbug
Member Since: Nov 15, 2002
Happy Holidays, all!
I'm looking to buy a "real" sound card to record with... I'm looking at the MAudio Audiophile 2496. I want to record from my Behringer 602A mixer to my sound card. Do I need to buy the analog version, or should I use the Dio card, which has the digital inputs and outputs? I don't really need the digital for anything I can think of, although it would be nice to be able to do digital.
Thanks!
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Dec 24, 2002 09:18 am With a 602 the Audiophile 2496 service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear is a perfect choice, it gives you S/PDIF, MIDI and analog. The only different with the DiO is that it has optical ins and out. The less expensive one has S/PDIF digital ins and out plus analog ins and outs, and considering the 602 (and any mixer in that series) is all analog, I would go with the less expensive one, the DiO, if I recall would require you to buy a more expensive mixer...
Dec 24, 2002 09:24 am Thanks! That helps a great deal.
JAYMember
Since: Dec 22, 2002
Dec 24, 2002 09:23 am If I'm not mistaken, I've read some newsgroups regarding the MAudio products and there really wasn't much positive. I personally had the Delta 44 w/ the Midiman and incurred problems with the drivers. You may want to inquire about Echo Mia or the Echo Gina. They're a bit more money but are good products. They're available from American Musical. Good Luck
Dec 24, 2002 09:44 am Many of us here have M-Audio, I personally have the Audiophile 2496 and have not had one lick of trouble with it yet. Actually, you saying this is the first negative I have ever heard about M-Audio. Before the Audiophile, I had the Echo Gina20 and had a great deal of trouble with hardware compatibility and driver issues, as wll as very slow driver development. I have heard Echo has gotten better, but they have lost my business for life. Though there are a few people here that use Echo with no problems at all...
As with any computer component, somebody will have a problem with everything, thereis no perfect answer for everybody. I stated using the Audiophile to tincanbug because I, at one time used the Audiophile with an 802 Behringer and it worked great.
Ya gotta be careful where you get information on the internet, I have seen some blatantly bad advice on some newsgroups and other message boards. I am not saying that was the case here, but it is an issue to be aware of, make sure you are someplace that is trusted or known for giving decent advice and the people that are there know what they are talking about. The same could be said for HRC, since it is on the net we should not be easily trusted I suppose, but years of giving advice to people that has proved correct and helpful earns you the right to be trusted...the same cannot be said for all forums and newsgroups.
Sorry to hear you have had probs with your M-Audio, I don't hear of that happening very often to anyone...have you spoke to M-Audio about it?
OK, I will step down off my soapbox now :-)
JAYMember
Since: Dec 22, 2002
Dec 24, 2002 09:59 am You're right about some of the sources. I had MAudio for a while with no problems, then one day it all went downhill. I was initially very happy with their products. It took support nearly 5 days to reply to my e-mails and that's when I turned to the newsgroups as well as a couple of other sources. That's ehwn I found numerous people with the same complaints that I had. I couldn't have said it any better, certain pc's react certain ways w/ different products.
Dec 24, 2002 10:20 am Well, now I don't recall you coming here to ask if anyone had the same probs you did or stating what those probs were... ;-)
Seriously tho, I would be curious to know what those problems were/are on what operating systems with what applications just for my own curiosity...and to add to the little knowledge base we are building in these forums.
Dec 24, 2002 10:29 am It's true that M-Audio cards do have tons of problems for some people. In fact, there is a whole message board (pub10.ezboard.com/bdelta1010forum) made just for people who have trouble with their Delta cards. I own the Delta 44, and as you probably remember, db, have had a lot of trouble with the drivers in XP. When I first bought the card, I almost smashed the thing because I was getting tons of popping and clicking and noise in my recordings. M-Audio's support was so terrible, and the instruction manual sounded like it was 10 years old. Finally I got some help in an e-mail and resorted to calling up Dell computers, who told me they knew exactly what situation I was tallking about because other people had had the same trouble with similar cards. I had to either reinstall Windows or go through a long process of reinstalling all the drivers and switching the "mode" of the computer. Plus, I had to go on to M-Audio.com to download the new XP drivers (Which I also had quite a bit of trouble with as well...). After all that work, the pops and clicks were gone. Despite all the problems I had, I would still recommend the cards because of their sound quality and price, but you have to be careful... and don't get discouraged. I haven't had a problem since, so that's a good sign. As for the Echo stuff, I wouldn't buy the Gina just because It only has two inputs-- yet it has a ton of outputs... What is the point of that? If you want to record a few tracks at once, then don't buy that thing... However, If you're willing to spend some more money, the Layla is a great card. That's all I have to say.
Dec 24, 2002 11:21 am Actually, PorpoiseMuffins, I do remember that now that you mention it...however, the fact the you still recommend them say a lot.
The fact the Gina had so many outputs is a good thing, some people, like me, like multiple output options for going to a reference amp, one set to a headphone amp, maybe one set back to the mixer for outboard processing, etc. Also, on the Gina, the multiple outs can also be set up to have 6 of them work together to send out a Dobly Digital 5.1 surround sound mix, which is totally cool.
My point is that there are plenty of reason for more outs than ins depending on your recording methods...
Dec 25, 2002 06:59 pm Ahhh... I guess that makes sense, but I'd still much rather have more inputs than outputs. What I do is route the output from my card back into my outboard mixer which splits it into seperate outputs for my monitors and headphones, but I can see why you would need more outputs if you wanted to use more headphones and stuff at once.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 27, 2002 10:45 pm Man, I have been using Midi-Man/M-Audio for year's and have had nothing but the best o luck with their hardware and their tech support.
They are probably the only company out there that keep's their driver's current for every app out there. They even post beta stuff just to make sure no-one get's left out in the cold.
They were also the very first one's to post driver's to work with Mac's OS X. And they sere the only one's whose driver's did not cause major system crashing with OS X.
