External Sound Card Recommendations

[mzisserson]

Recommendations

I need an external sound card for my laptop. I would like to keep it inexpensive, as the data is for my personal (and posted for here!) use with ARTA. Any ideas? I am unfamiliar with this territory. Just looking or the basics.

I have measurement mic and pre already.

[dbe]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

Recommendations

I need an external sound card for my laptop. I would like to keep it inexpensive, as the data is for my personal (and posted for here!) use with ARTA. Any ideas? I am unfamiliar with this territory. Just looking or the basics.

I have measurement mic and pre already.

Try here:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=4261

Dave

[spasticteapot]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

M-audio audiophile FireWire.

[dbe]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

M-audio audiophile FireWire.

I've got an M-audio 2496 in my computer that I'm typing on right now, but he said "inexpensive". That means different thins to different people. B&H Photo has the best price on the Solo at $169.00

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=M-audio+firewire+external+sound+card&rlz=1I7DKUS_en&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=3988113201718884148&ei=QkY2S9a6NoGyswPOxa2bBA&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers

I've done some tweaking on my M-audio Audiophile 24/96 and it sounds stellar.

Dave

[Ron_E]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

Recommendations

I need an external sound card for my laptop. I would like to keep it inexpensive, as the data is for my personal (and posted for here!) use with ARTA. Any ideas? I am unfamiliar with this territory. Just looking or the basics.

I have measurement mic and pre already.

Behringer UCA222 USB Audio Interface

I haven't used this, but for $35 it's something I'm thinking about trying. I use SoundEasy and one of the primary requirements for sound cards is low latency which this product claims to have.

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--BEHUCA222

There's a link on the page to download the manual which has the specs.

Ron E

[spasticteapot]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

I've got an M-audio 2496 in my computer that I'm typing on right now, but he said "inexpensive". That means different thins to different people. B&H Photo has the best price on the Solo at $169.00

I paid $40 for my Audiophile USB secondhand.

What tweaks have you made to yours?

[dbe]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

I paid $40 for my Audiophile USB secondhand.

What tweaks have you made to yours?

Easy ones: I replaced the 5532s with OPA2134s, replaced the coupling caps with Black Gates and put RF shielding around it. It sounds very good.

The M-Audio gear is pretty darned good for the money. I like the ability to choose the default sampling rates and bit rates. Mine lives @ 24/88.2.

Dave

[spasticteapot]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

Easy ones: I replaced the 5532s with OPA2134s, replaced the coupling caps with Black Gates and put RF shielding around it. It sounds very good.

The M-Audio gear is pretty darned good for the money. I like the ability to choose the default sampling rates and bit rates. Mine lives @ 24/88.2.

Dave

I can't set the default @#[email protected]#$ sampling/bit rate. @#[email protected]$ Linux drivers....

Is there a link to a page that goes over which PARTS to swap? I was planning on just adding an external amp, but replacing a few op-amps and adding some great big film caps sounds like an economical option.

EDIT: PARTS, not POTs. I've got rheostats on the brain..

[Wolf]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

PE sells it too.

I have the grey one, but it is not 96kHz sampling. It does work for measuring, as I've done a couple, but I don;t know how well. Dirk derived a cal-file for the grey one, and applied it does work.
Later,
Wolf

[dbe]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

I can't set the default @#[email protected]#$ sampling/bit rate. @#[email protected]$ Linux drivers....

Is there a link to a page that goes over which pots to swap? I was planning on just adding an external amp, but replacing a few op-amps and adding some great big film caps sounds like an economical option.

Uhm, not really. If you can take a picture of the top of the circuit board at good resolution, we can figure it out, though.

Dave

[Paul Carmody]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

I use the M-Audio Audiophile USB for pretty much all my listening AND measurement. They don't make it anymore, but I'd get another M-Audio USB product if I needed to. Their Audiophile PCI cards are very nice as well. Otherwise, I'd look into Edirol. DO NOT get Mark of the Unicorn if you plan on using it on a Windows machine (they're pretty much a Mac-based company, and I've tried their stuff on Windows machines and it was always a disaster). The Behringer stuff I might try, but have low expectations of; while there is definitely some "great but cheap" Behringer stuff, they also make some plain old cheap crap.

[spasticteapot]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

I might point out that M-Audio driver support is problematic at best and downright nonexistent at worst. AFAIK, I can't actually use my soundcard under Windows 7.

RME is apparently the way to go if you're running Linux, but I can't afford it.

[tpremo55]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

I did a M-Audio MobilePre USB 2nd hand and have had to do some trial and error to get things working, but it seems to work fine. I use this with SoundEasy and am happy with the results with few exceptions. The larger contributor seems to be the noise in given laptop.

Spasticteapot's comments about the drivers are probably true, however I have noted some new drivers/software updates even late this year (including apparent support for Win7-32bit released in the end of November).

I'm also interested in improvements on the unit as well and have looked around for such with little success. Would it be worth breaking off a new thread on the topic and ask some of the experts to expound on their methods and recommendations?

[mgrabow]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

The Tascam 122 goes for about $69 on ebay...

[LouC]

Re: External Sound Card Recommendations

I need an external sound card for my laptop. I would like to keep it inexpensive, as the data is for my personal (and posted for here!) use with ARTA. Any ideas? I am unfamiliar with this territory. Just looking or the basics.

I bought this Edirol UA-1EX based on recommendations here. Thoroughly happy with it. Similar to the Behringer units.