Re: USB Audio

[Farsheed <tfarsheed@xxxxxxxxx>]

I just went through some major headaches with USB
audio interfaces.  The short of it is to be careful of
hardware conflicts when choosing your interface - the
manufacturer may have some documentation on it.  None
of them seem as reliable as they could be.

The US-122 works well, but is flimsy. I had problems
with M-Audio interfaces and hardware conflicts.  I had
the (Mackie) Tapco Link.USB which was very reliable
but the headphone sound quality was a little harsh in
the upper frequencies.  I finally bit the bullet and
got a digidesign mbox.  If you can find a used mbox 1
by itself, those are very reliable and have low
latency. The newer mbox's are nice but more $ since
they are bundled with pro tools.  

The other USB interface I would seriously look into is
the Emu 0404. Emu makes some damn good D/A converters.
It's around the $200 mark.

Farsheed



--- Pawel Kusmierek <p.kusmierek@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Dear Ward,
> 
> M-Audio and Edirol make some USB audio interfaces,
> some starting at $70. I
> am not sure about RCA connectors, but if other
> connectors are used, it's
> only a matter of an adapter.
> I also have had no direct experience with these USB
> cards, but both
> companies are pretty respectable. I am using
> M-Audio's PCI cards and I am
> very happy with them, except the dB ccale in their
> mixer application is
> wrong (they used 10 instead of 20 in the dB formula,
> or something like
> that).
> 
> If the reason why you want USB is that you're going
> to use a laptop, a
> PCMCIA card may be a solution. Of these, Echo Indigo
> IO has a very good
> reputation.
> 
> Good luck
> 
> Pawel
> 
> 
> 
> Ward R. Drennan wrote:
> > Dear List,
> >
> > I'm looking for an Audio USB device with 1/4"
> headphone jack and stereo
> > RCA connections to produce high fidelity sound
> from a PC, and for less
> > than $200. My office-mate (Dasika) found one with
> really high quality
> > sound; the noise floor was actually lower than
> TDT. It's the TASCAM
> > US-122. However, many owners of this device have
> reported it unreliable
> > with flaky software and a suspect power supply.
> >
> > Does anyone have a suggestion for a USB audio
> device that is a little more
> > reliable? Cause we can't have equipment that
> doesn't work when we need it.
> >
> > Ward R. Drennan, Ph. D.
> > VM Bloedel Hearing Research Center
> > Department of Otolaryngology
> > University of Washington Box 357923
> > Seattle, WA 98195
> > Office: (206) 897-1848
> > Fax: (206) 616-1828
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pawel Kusmierek PhD
> Department of Physiology and Biophysics
> Georgetown University Medical Center
> The Research Building WP23
> 3970 Reservoir Road NW
> Washington, DC 20007
> phone: +1 202 687-8851
> 



 
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