M-Audio Audiophile 2496, worth it?

[Enc3f4L0]

I have an Athlon XP 2400+ (Overclocked to 2.2Ghz) with 1gb DDR.
I'm a guitarist but have been learning alot about softsynths and have had alot of fun with them.

The problem is I have an onboard SiS Soundcard (the one on my ECS K7S5A) and I get some pretty ugly latencies.... It's hard to even sync recording with WAVs most of the time. No ASIO, only MME.

My dad is going to São Paulo today for 2 days (I live in Brasilia) and I have a chance to give him the money to get me an M-Audio Audiophile 2496.

Will this soundcard do me much? Or should I first buy a new motherboard to upgrade CPU and RAM (I can't upgrade anymore with this motherboard) and think about soundcards later?

When I load some heavy VSTs I get some dropouts while playbacking... Is this do to soundcard also or mainly because of processing and memory?

Thanks for any reply (if any) in the next few hours... (It's 3:50am now and he'll be leaving at 11:00 am). I should've posted this earlier but just thought about it now...

[Scrap]

The Audiophile has been brought up in many discussions already. Use the search function to get your answer. :P

[Axe2Grind]

Sounds like you have the same CPU/Motherboard as me, the onboard soundcard is not great for recording guitar or softsynths etc as you know. I am a guitarist also (as well as keyboardist) and I think the Audiophile is not best suited for recording guitar as it only has RCA inputs and outputs, not 1/4 inch jack or XLR inputs which I think is needed for connecting the guitar, but if its just softsynths that you need this audio card for then its got good performance and low latency. If I were you, Id go for an M-Audio Mobile-Pre interface, its USB so can be used with either a desktop or laptops, has XLR inputs for MIC's and D.I. Boxes for optimum guitar recording and is about the same price as the Audiophile and also has good latency for softsynths. I personally have the M-Audio Duo which is again great for recording guitar and virtual instruments etc and has XLR and Line level I/O's. I think the Audiophile has been covered here with respect to softsynth performance not discussed with guitar recording in mind, because its not good for that, My brother has one and he had to get some RCA to 1/4 jack adapters to record with his guitar processor, and the results were not good either. Just my opinion though.... :) P.S. The audiophile 24/96 does not have a headphone preamp for direct monitoring which is good to have, you don't have to route the soundcards outputs to a mixer then or poweramps, good for silent recording.

Diagram of Mobile-Pre :
http://209.132.209.149/images/en/callouts/big/mobilepre_usb.jpg

[Spacehog]

I have an Audiophile 2496 in my video editing / internet machine and I really like it. Your RAM and CPU should be plenty for the time being, it's definitely your soundcard that's holding you back (I have 1Gb DDR and an XP2000+ in this machine, FWIW). Axe2Grind's comments about headphone outputs and jack inputs are valid though, I guess it depends what other hardware you have kicking around. I have 4 Delta 1010LT's in my main music machine, I also have mic preamps, DI boxes and a V-Amp kicking around (plus a 100W Marshall) so it is plenty fine for what I need...

Martin

[Enc3f4L0]

I gave my dad the cash for the 2496.

Axe2grind did make sense for me, except that the Mobile-Pre interface costs more than twice what the 2496 cost.

2469 = 600 Reais = 200USD
Mobile - Pre Interface = 1450 Reais = 483.3USD

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Axe2Grind]

Not sure who quoted you 483.3 USD but they are not that much at all...

Here for an example:
http://mac-pro.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=maudio-mobilepre&Category_Code=USB

Cheaper than the 24/96 but hey, your choice.... :)

P.S, Planet Waves make an RCA to 1/4 inch jack adapters so you may want to look into that to hook up your guitar...

[Hipelius]

Audiophile is the best card I've ever tried. I'm still using it myself :P

[Enc3f4L0]

They are coming more expensive to Brazil... A found a site a bit cheaper, but still... Check it out for yourself:

http://www.showpoint.com.br/sub_secao.cfm?PaginaAtual=2&pagina=2&cod_subsecao= 177

[Enc3f4L0]

I have just installed the Audiophile 2496.

I'm having a problem though. During playback (tested on windows media player, winamp) it is clicking in intervals of a bit more than 1s.

Anyone have any experience with this sort of problem?

[Spacehog]

No, not come across that at all. I take it you've installed the latest version of the driver from m-audio.com (I believe the file is called deltaweb_1007.exe or something similar)? Also could be that your DMA buffer size is set too low. And try seating it into a different PCI slot, it could be in one sharing an IRQ with another card that's being polled regularly.

Martin

[Enc3f4L0]

Hmm...

I have installed the latest driver... Just got it off from M-Audio.com.

I'm playing around with the DMA setting... So far 512 has been the best, but it still clicks if I move around a bit (minimize, restore windows).

And it is the only PCI card installed in my computer.

[Enc3f4L0]

Nevermind, it was IDE problems (PIO instead of UDMA) causing the M-Audio to crackle.