Hey i am thinking about taking an old computer an dbuilding into a music machine. get a 160 gig hard drive and rip everything uncompressed.

I am not sure as to what sound card i need though.

I have looked at the terratex DMX 6fire 24/96
the m-audio delta 66
any recomendations would be greatly appreciated

I am basically looking for any sound card for under 300 dollars.

I want this sound card to reproduce the best sound going into my stereo receiver

thnx

how about this?
Audiotrack Prodigy 7.1

Digit-Life have run RMAA on it and the result looks nice.

or this? Waveterminal 192X

the specs looks good, but don't know about RMAA result...

M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496 or Terratec EWX 2496 - both come for less than 150 $ and offer equally perfect (IMHO) reproduction.

M-Audio offers coaxial digital I/O
Terratec offers Toslink I/O

Both cards are based on the Envy24 chipset ...

Both cards feature solid RCA jacks on the slot bracket ...

Both cards feature rock-stable and lean WDM drivers ...

Both cards feature a self-explaining control panel

The only difference is that the M-Audio shows a lower noise on the A/D conversion (it gains some 2 dB over the EWX2496 at the level of -102 dB)

thnx for the suggestions. both of those crads...particulary that terratec one look very nice. I am curious though as to if i will hear any audible difference between the terratec dmx 6 fire and the ewx...particulary in a computer to stereo setup? Is the dmx just more expensive because of its features?

Also i would like to hook my system up using a coaxil set up. I am unfimiliar with toslink I/O though. Is this suimilar to coaxil, in sound quality?

thnx a bunch

Since both are digital connection, sound quality is identical. Which one to prefer depends most on what kind of connection is available on your other equipment.

(Toslink is an optical digital connection.)

If your other equipment have coaxial digital connections, I higly recommend the M-audio Audiophile 2496. It is an excellent card, and you won't need an optical/coaxial converter. If your equipment has toslink, then get the Terratec.

If your equipment support both, then both are excellent choices.

Interesting thread...

I myself bought the Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 some month ago, and I´m very happy with it...
But i must say I could only compare with the Soundblaster Live (using SSRC Resampling) and two different Onboard-Solutions...
I can't really explain but the Terratec just sounds better...
Following this thread i have just two questions...

@JeanLuc:

what does this mean...

@JGG

same question like @JeanLuc...

Hiwi

1. RMAA is a freeware program (Right Mark Audio Analyzer) which allows to measure soundcard specifications with a loopback test (cable between in & out) ... it also can be used to explain that there are no audible differences between cables ...

2. WDM is a Microsoft device driver model for Win32 OS like Win2000/XP/2003

see this german link for further explanation ... http://www.it-visions.de/glossar/wserver/W...er%20Model.aspx

Thanks for your explanations, JeanLuc!

I muddled up WDM with the Microsoft Certificate for Drivers... Don´t know the shortcut, WHSQL, I guess...

And AFAIK there are no such Drivers for Terratec...


Sorry! I´m sometimes not sure! It´s hard to say, which Driver is fault for any crash, or something like that,
but the Driver seems for me not to be the most stable...

Btw., I´m using the Version 5.40 - are there any other recommendations?

Hiwi

i cant find the terratec ewx for sale anywhere ont he internet.

anyone got a link?

thnx

http://audiode.terratec.net/product.php?pid=6

german, though ...

So do I ... seems to work perfectly under XP ...

@JeanLuc:

Did you "upgrade" from the Ewx to the DMX 6fire? - Why?

Hiwi

No, the WDM driver for the EWX/EXS series shows the same version and build number ... ... and since both cards (EWX & DMX 6 Fire) are based on the same chipset, there shouldn't be much difference in driver performance.

hey i found a link to buy the ewx if any besides me is interested

http://www.americanmusical.com/st/aspx/bra...ATE/en/sort.htm