stereo sound card

[arley]

Greetings, all:

I'm in the planning stages for my first build. One of the major functions for the computer will be inputting a ton of old LP's into digital files. I'm looking for advice for what would be the best sound card to use for this application.

I will be using some audio editing software (yet to be determined) to remove the more obnoxious pops and scratches, but I really don't want to mess up whatever analog presence is there. I have a few special albums with remarkable sonics, and a good conversion to digital would be nice.

I'm not a gamer, and I don't expect to be watching surround-sound movies on this, so I don't think I need 5.1 or 7.1 sound. I DO want excellent 2 channel sound, though.

I also may be doing a little simple audio recording; voices, acoustic instruments, but certainly I'm not planning to become a major mixologist. I'd like MIDI I/O as well so I can use a piano learning software package.

I've been looking at some M-Audio products, specifically the Delta 1010LT and the Audiophile 192. The 1010LT has more ins & outs and would be more flexible for recording, but the 192 can do 24 bit recording at up to 192 kHz, while the 1010LT can only sample at up to 96 kHz. Anyone out there know if that (96kHz vs. 192kHz)makes an audible difference in the real world? (I have a very good stereo for playback, and am a bit fussy about the sonics.)

Also, if you have enough slots, can you have two cards at once? (The 192 for LP dubbing, the 1010 for recording.)

Thanks in advance for any and all advice and guidance about these or other products.

 

[themisfit610]

The 1010LT is a great card, don't get me wrong.

However, it may be overkill as far as the many inputs and outputs.

I would suggest looking into products from E-Mu, Echo, etc... There are some good cards out there that are specifically geared towards recording.

As far as 96 vs 192khz... without really killer ADCs, a REALLY nice turntable / arm / needle, cables etc... you will likely hear no difference. They're both great cards. Keep in mind that you will need a phono pre-amp, either integrated into the turntable, as is the case with some newer models, or by way of a receiver with phono in / preamp out.

The 1010 is nice, because it has mic, midi, and line level ins. The drivers are very good, but are kind of clunky to work with.

ASIO is great on these cards - with a good CPU you can get latency down to 2-3ms at 96KHz. Very nice if you plan on doing MIDI and analog recording.

~MiSfit

 

[arley]

Thanks, misfit; I will look into those other brands. The level of my other equipment: turntable is a Linn Sondek LP12, Infinity Black Widow arm and a Grado cartridge (soon to be upgraded to a better Grado.) My phono stage preamp is in my NAD preamp (can take either MM or MC inputs) but I'm thinking of building a tube phono preamp (bottlehead 'Seduction'). Used to have a sweet souped up Dynaco tube amp, but it died, so I'm using a NAD solid state. Nice, but not the liquid warmth of tubes.

Many years ago I had a guest in my apt., and played a LP of some classical guitar music. She complained, "You can hear the fingers squeak on the fingerboard." My reply: "Do you want to know how much I spent so I CAN hear those finger squeaks?"

 

[Modelworks]

I used the 1010LT in a church where they were recording the services and it gave very good performance without any issues.
We were using Asio with sound forge .


http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-MII-AP2496.html
Same card with fewer inputs, about 90.00

I have used american musical for years, a great group of people for pro audio.
They even break up the more expensive stuff into same as cash payments.