Good C-Media USB sound card?

Folks,

The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD was a major disappointment. It is going back unless it decides to work properly very soon. Their customer service is also sub-par.

So, looking for a better USB sound module. Miso mentioned C-Media but I could only find chips on their site:

formatting link

Who makes decent USB sound modules with these chips? Should be on a USB cable, not a dongle. Must support Windows XP, have stereo line in and line out. Preferably from an American company, or at least one that lists phone numbers on their web site, actually cares about their customers and has useful technical manuals.

I need this for EE stuff, not audio. So as plain vanilla as possible would be good. Price can be up to $100.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg
Loading thread data ...

something like this?

formatting link

I think most dongles come with a short extender cable so it does have to stick out of the side of the pc

-Lasse

Reply to
langwadt

formatting link

Thanks, that looks like a good one.

The ones I saw didn't. You can get USB extender cables for $5-10 but those tend to be thick and unwieldy.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

formatting link

I use a variety of right-angle cables from...

formatting link

to neaten up the cable mess/dress on my desk.

I first bought a right-angled one to be able to use a dongle on my ThinkPad at an airplane seat tray without it getting bumped and damaged. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jim Thompson

I buy those little cheap things from computer shows, the last one I got cost something like 5 bucks but it works. It has stereo out for head phones and mic input.

Jamie

Reply to
Jamie

What is the problem?

Been burned with C-Media hardware. Experienced sample rate irregularities. Looks like sampling clock is done by divider with variable ratio.

I've used SB Extigy for work for many years. Had to switch to SB THX HD because Extigy is unsupported on W7. No problems with either one.

Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Designs

formatting link

Reply to
Vladimir Vassilevsky

I got a few usb extenders from Monoprice. No issues. They seem to have a tight grip on the usb device. I still have the bag handy. It says PID:8604 USB(E)-AA-MF-01-W. I bought a dozen and just stock them since they are relatively cheap.

The only reason I mention C-Media is they seem to have USB sound down. The specs aren't great, but for something to take you from analog to digital without spending hours tracking down usb isues, they are fine. For a lot of what I use them for, I only need 8 bit "sound".

As an aside, a lot of these portable sound recorders also work as usb sound cards:

One advantage to using these external recorders is you can run them without a PC to record, then analyze the sound later via download. I know that isn't your situation, but this does allow for testing if the PC is coupling noise back into what you are measuring. That is, you record with and without the PC in the loop. Getting to the point where there is no low level PC noise added to a system isn't easy since everything shares the same ground.

The Zoom recorders don't have GHz CPUs and such in them, so they do record without those artifacts. The microphone amps are a bit noisy, but the line level is fine.

Reply to
miso

I buy USB Male A to USB Female A cables at Dollar Tree and have never found a bad one. I've bought dozens there.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

You made my point. New OS, junk the card. Creative doesn't give a crap about their customers. I used to buy their stuff back in the day, but the company really went to shit.

I've already tossed my Creative cardbus soundcard so I don't know the model, but it was flaky under win7. Playback would sound like bits of sound were missing. Good riddance. It worked fine under win2kpro. It is like they farm out the driver rewrites. It was working under linux, though not in every program.

I use the C-media cards for sigint. No problems under linux. I have less experience with them under windows. If there were sample rate errors, I would see it in the BER.

I use the Diamond card for PCI. Again, I don't need dynamic range since I'm dealing with a channel that has far worse SNR than the card, probably by 30dB.

Reply to
miso

What about these guys?

They list what chipsets are used. not pricey either. Look thru the website, there are other USB things. Located in FL, phone number on website.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

For that amount of hassle you could probably afford real data acqusition board from NI with lifetime support.

USB C-media is cheap stuff designed for computer games. The C-media sample rate jumps between two different values about two times per sec. This happens regardless of selected sample rate; both in transmit and receive path. Very detrimental for phase measurement. Other problem with C-media is native sample rates vs emulated sample rates. Performance in the emulated modes is pretty bad. The C-media analog parameters are mediocre at best. As far as the hardware, I never had to blame Creative.

VLV

Reply to
Vladimir Vassilevsky

Numerous ones. It stopped putting out signals on the line outputs out of the blue, at random. Then one the input both channels worked only with the RIAA amp, without it no signal was received. And so on.

Aggravating factors were that the installed SW caused an increadible bloat, the company web page support link did not accept my inquiry, they give no phone numbers, the only email I found was from their ivetsor guy. Who chose not to even answer.

Long story short I have already sent it back and won't buy a Creative product again.

I have uninstalled their software, now I have to figure out how to uninstall their driver.

Oh, that would be very bad in my case. Looks like I need to reseach this whole sound card topic out a lot more.

I am dreading Windows 7, big time, for such reasons. Eventually I'll have to buy a couple of simple netbook for this. My Samsung NC-10 with XP works like a champ but with XP I can only buy used and then the batteries are mostly shot.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

I really need all 16 bits. Plus I have to measure phase accurately, to within 1/10 of a degree. So if they really do clock dither like Vladimiar mentioned that would be bad.

I need it realtime, it's not recording sound but measuring resonant structures via phase. And things should be too bulky.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Thanks. Finally one company with real information on their site. Now I'd have to find out whether the CM6206 chip in there does the clock dithering that Vladimir mentioned. Because that would mess up my application.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

could try the demo board for this:

formatting link

-Lasse

Reply to
langwadt

Yeah, but I really need somthing in a box, plug and play.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

I use an application that listens to a radio scanner for packets and does DSP to recover the data bytes; it's a software dem. My setup uses the motherboard audio on my desktop PC, but the "troubleshooting" section of the software manual says that the Griffin iMic is "known to work well in data applications". The brochure is at

formatting link
; that page says stereo line in, XP and 7 compatibility.

Griffin's Q&A page at

formatting link
says it is 24-bit internally, but limited to 16 bit/48 KHz with the default drivers; "third party USB ASIO drivers" are supposed to give you the full 24 bits. They don't seem to tell you where you can obtain these drivers.

I tried to find out what chip(s) it uses internally. There is a rather amusing answer at

formatting link
that basically says the only specs they guarantee are 16 bit, 48 kHz, $40.

Again, I don't use an iMic myself; I am just passing along what I read.

Griffin has their own store but they are out of stock. Some other online stores (including B&H and Sweetwater) say they have it; it seems to go for about $40. (It should be $20, but a white housing on hardware means it's for Mac, which doubles the price.)

Standard disclaimers apply; I don't get money or other consideration from any companies mentioned.

Matt Roberds

Reply to
mroberds

Nice, do you know how much? I wanted to record shot noise on our tarpaulin in the rain, waterfalls, and culvert whistlers (and then do the fft's). It's not a very big itch though.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

Which is why performing a system state save is a good idea before unknown hdw installations.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

There is no such thing as "extigy"

My SB Audigy card is working on my W7 box, just fine.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.