Dane, A couple of years ago, I wanted to obtain excellent audio at a reasonable price. After sifting through years worth of messages on this list and that of blind tech, the consensus from the enlightened and informed was the Audiophile 2496 sound card from M-Audio. The card includes the Delta audio interface. My aim was to increase the sound quality of the music I listen to using my computer and to also feed voice recordings from the community recorded with a minidisc recorder into it. My research and decision was confirmed by a conversation I had with Tom McCann, proprietor of Dancing dots. tom created a really nice web page, sorting out the sound card issue for blind musicians. It can be found at:
http://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/soundcards.htm When I bought the Audiophile 2496 a couple of years ago, it was the sound card installed in his superduper audio recording workstation. I bought two sound cards from tom and his Dancing Dots business, whose price was competitive with vendors on the Internet. My techie who I originally found on Craigslist came by one weekend and installed the sound cards on two computers as well as the Delta audio interface. He also adjusted JAWS so it used the computer's onboard sound card on one of the machines. The sound quality is excellent with a greater depth and clarity than what I thought possible from a computer sound card. It is especially bright and clear when playing audio in 24 bit mode in Winamp. the card is quiet, producing no background noise at regular sound levels. I decided not to go with the Creative cards, including the Audigy, after reading many end user experiences of mediocre quality and a relatively high noise floor compared to the Audiophile 2496. I had used the SoundBlaster card with my DOS machines in the 1990s and with my first Windows machine this decade. End users spoke about a good, but not truly great sound from Audigy cards and there were a fair number of reports of enough quantization noise that it posed a real irritation for some. I did not find these reports from Audiophile 2496 end users though. While I was comfortable with Creative products, I wanted a device to take me to the next level in audio quality from a computer's on board sound card or a SoundBlaster. I came to realize that an Audigy would not fully take me to this new place of high quality audio that I had never been before. The drawback to this card and most of the M-Audio cards is that they are intended to be used with either a mixer or microphone pre-amplifier. There is no microphone input on this and most M-audio cards. Also, all the complaints on all the online forums about the documentation and learning curve of the Delta audio interface are absolutely true and accurate. the interface is complex and the documentation is skimpy and poorly worded. I read through the manual about five times before fully understanding it. In my day job, I read through lengthy and complicated policy and program documents all the time so a software manual is hardly a challenging undertaking. Yet, I was on my fifth reading when I did a sentence by sentence analysis of the manual when I finally got it, which was about after two or three days of staying focused on this device. I knew I could call tom of Dancing dots with some questions but I first had to know enough to formulate a question! the trickiest part was configuring the card for recording. both the card and the mixing sections in the Delta interface needed to be configured properly for audio input from the card's line in jacks to be recorded properly. In the end, I now easily obtain broadcast quality recordings with many complements. For those like me who work in a corporate environment or large government agency here in the United States, being able to use a Mac with voice Over is a near impossibility. rather than learn two operating systems, I use Microsoft Windows exclusively as do hundreds of millions of others throughout the world. This serves me well with quality audio output and very good audio recording and editing options. Kelly ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dane Trethowan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 5:55 AM Subject: Sound devices for the PC Hi everyone! Ok (as surprising as this may sound to a lot of people) I'm a novice with the PC technology (or trashbox as I prefer to call it <smile.) these days so I'd appreciate some input from other list members here. I've spoken about my DAT and I intend to get the digital converter that someone on this list kindly gave me the name of, I found it still in stock in some of the shops here so I've placed an order. The discussion has also prompted me to look at a new sound device for the Trashbox, I've used (up until now) SB Live cards, the Realtek ac97 built-in sound device on the Mother Board of the Trashbox and the Imic sound devices, all have performed to my expectations but now however, well I'm stepping into unfamiliar teritory as I want to purchase a sound card with digital i/o capabilities but on the other hand I want it to be as accessible with speech as is practical, I'm told that many of the new sound devices on the market have volume controls which differ from the standard windows volume controls, is this correct? I briefly looked at the catalogue displayed by my local computer store on the net http://www.istore.com.au and looked at the Creative brand, there's no shortage of sound devices there it would seem but which one to buy? Should I in fact steer clear of Creative completely and go for something else? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. As a footnote to this, my Trashbox is approaching its fifth birthday so I'm wanting something which will be compatible with my current Trashbox and will be compatible with a new Trashbox which I plan to purchase in about 6 months all being well. Of course! if the device should be compatible with the Mac then that's a bonus but that's something that I don't class as a priority. Thanks In Advance ****************************** Dane Trethowan From Melton Victoria Australia Phone +613 9747 3975 Voiceover Tech Support +613 8732 9237 Fax +613 9743 7954 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] msn: [EMAIL PROTECTED] skype: callto:grtdane12 ******************************* Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
