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Consider Dead: M-Audio Delta 410 PCI

T

tcsenter

Lifer
I was looking for some VIA Envy24 sound cards, which appear to have dried-up except for the lowest-end part. I came across a reseller listing an M-Audio Delta 410, which apparently was made for HP. The reseller gave scant information, and strangely had it categorized as "internal laptop component" in spite of the generic photo indicating it was regular PCI, not compact PCI. Searching the HP part number did not reveal any more information. HP's own part system just showed "SPS-Card M-Audio" with no further details available. I decided to take a chance, since it was only $5.00 plus shipping, so I ordered two of them.

Got them yesterday, and it is genuine Delta 410 PCI audio card sans the breakout cable, which can be purchased from M-Audio for $25.00 plus shipping (total came to $35.00 for me). Latest Delta Series drivers from M-Audio recognize the card as M-Audio Delta 410, not an OEM part. I bought a cable from M-Audio and plan to use it as a reference to make my own cable for the second card.

While the Delta 410 has been replaced by the Delta 1010, M-Audio still sells it for $150.00 (with breakout cable). You can find it selling at other resellers for $90 ~ $100. These cards came bulk packed with no driver or application CD, but the drivers can be downloaded from M-Audio for XP 32/64, Vista 32/64, and OS-X. The cards I received were listed as "new", and I believe they are. There isn't so much as a fingerprint on them, and the contact edge is pristine with no insertion marks at all. The box had HP sealing tape and HP markings, so apparently was drop-shipped straight from HP's own surplus parts system or warehouse.

They are no longer in stock at the reseller I bought them from, but I did find a few other surplus dealers or management firms who claim to have them for as low as $8.00 each (new or refurbished). The applicable HP part numbers are:

404808-001 (original part)
405991-001 (replacement part)

I couldn't have bought the only two that were left.
 
Interesting. I have an M-Audio Revolution 5.1, and the drivers are terrible, but the sound is great.

Edit: How do you plan to make a breakout cable? This is less of a steal when you have to spend $35 on the breakout cable...
 
The Via Envy24 chip is the best sounding chip I've ever heard. I used to have a TerraTec DMX 6-FIRE which uses the ENVY24 chip (ENVY24 is the best of all the envy variations) + AKM DACs and it sounds just as good if not a bit better than my Asus Xonar with the Oxygen HD chip. To me the ENVY24 was more musical than the Oxygen based Xonar. I'm not sure if these M-audio cards have the ENVY24 or ENVY24HT (HT-S, GT), if it is the ENVY24, then it will sound great. For that price, one can swap the on board capacitors on the stereo out to some Black Gates or Wimas and it will turn out to be one of the best sounding audio cards money can buy.

BTW, I had to get rid of my DMX 6-FIRE because driver support was pretty much non-existent for Vista x64.
 
Originally posted by: Invisiblemoose
Edit: How do you plan to make a breakout cable? This is less of a steal when you have to spend $35 on the breakout cable...
Click to expand...
The breakout cable is made entirely from off-the-shelf cabling material and connectors, just custom assembled. You can see a better image of the cabling here: nothing special going on

The I/O port is a standard DB25M connector used on LPT printer cables. All you'd need to interface with that is a standard DB25F connector used for the parallel/LPT port on many motherboards (the fastening nut and screw will need to be swapped), then decide what to do for appliance wiring, terminals, jacket, grommets or looms. All the individual cable ends are female RCA connectors. It wouldn't be difficult to fabricate your own little breakout box, which I may well decide to do.


Originally posted by: Amputater
I'm not sure if these M-audio cards have the ENVY24 or ENVY24HT (HT-S, GT), if it is the ENVY24, then it will sound great.
Click to expand...
The Envy chip part # can be seen in the photo. Its VT1712, the top Envy24 part.
 
Called codemicro and pinnaclemicro, neither could give me a price or availability. I think this may be a one shot YMMV deal.
 
Hence, the part about "sketchy availability". ;-)

Some of these places displayed prices a couple days ago. Maybe someone figured out these were worth a helluva lot more than $5.00.

Oh well, I tried to share my good find.
 
Originally posted by: Invisiblemoose
Interesting. I have an M-Audio Revolution 5.1, and the drivers are terrible, but the sound is great.
Click to expand...
Just happened to notice that M-Audio released new drivers for the Revo 5.1 dated 4/20/2009 (for XP/Vista 32 and 64). Thought you might be interested, if you didn't know already.
 
Originally posted by: ivan2
there's a sound card with envy24 is only 8 bucks on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16829126004

however i am not sure how good they will be, or the chip will even matter pairing up with other cheap components. Can any one tell me if the chip affect the sound quality of the PCM optical out?
Click to expand...

How can you tell which chip it uses?

I didn't see any chip info on the manufacturers web site or newegg.
 
Originally posted by: mikeford
Originally posted by: ivan2
there's a sound card with envy24 is only 8 bucks on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16829126004

however i am not sure how good they will be, or the chip will even matter pairing up with other cheap components. Can any one tell me if the chip affect the sound quality of the PCM optical out?
Click to expand...

How can you tell which chip it uses?

I didn't see any chip info on the manufacturers web site or newegg.
Click to expand...

pretty sure theres no way an 8 dollar sound card (on new egg) matches the one the OP was referencing
 
I doubt these sound cards with even margainally beat high end integrated sound.

As others have said, even a good chip is garbage when paired with lots of garbage components.
 
Originally posted by: ivan2
there's a sound card with envy24 is only 8 bucks on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16829126004
Click to expand...
That's the cut-down VT1723 "Tremor" part. Lower specs and missing some advanced features such as hardware mixer and DSP (IIRC). Its paired with a VIA audio codec, not the AKM, Wolfson, and Cirrus Logic parts used on the prosumer and professional Envy24 cards from AudioTrak, M-Audio, and others.

The controller supports up to 24-bit/96kHz digital I/O and 20-bit/48kHz analog, but will depend on the audio codec (DAC/ADC) used. e.g. the VT1617A codec supports only 16-bit on the digital I/O and would limit the card to 16-bit digital I/O.
 
WOW that's really hot..
This card still goes for $150 at the maudio store linked in this thread.
I really hope this goes back into stock.
 
my machine currently has some cheap store brand card in it that uses this via chipset. it works and sounds fine but i sometimes have issues with it and gaming. sound likes to crackle when a lot of different audio tracks are playing at once, much like onboard sound seems to do.

could be just my setup. i support buying audio stuff that's not from creative (garbage company ala bose at this point, imo), but i'm not sure about these cards. i don't think cheap caps and resistors and such would cause this issue, seems like a chipset shortcoming to me.
 
Originally posted by: LumbergTech
pinnacle micro just emailed me to let me know you can get a refurbished one for 76.50
Click to expand...
Well that may explain things. Pinnacle Micro was one of the resellers who displayed prices when I did a search for these part numbers trying to find better information. IIRC, the refurbed ones were listed as $8.00 and the new ones were $12.00.

It would seem my earlier suspicion may be correct, someone realized these were worth a helluva lot more. They probably even have a page-hit tracking feature that alerts them to a large spike in page hits on some item. Bummer.
 
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