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Good USB sound card?

Folks,

Just had a situation where a software toolkit could not properly handle the sound chip in my Gammatech Durabook but it handled the one in the Samsung NC-10 just fine. Anyhow, this is not cool if I ever have to switch horses in the field because a laptop died or the battery ran low.

So ... what can you guys recommend as a good USB sound card?

It should:

a. not require a separate wall wart.

b. have a true stereo MIC input and if possible also LINE IN. But if no LINE IN that can be ok. Main thing is I absolutely need two input channels.

c. be low in internal noise and not too suceptible to cell phones and other common RF disturbances.

d. have an enclosure that's not too flimsy. Size doesn't matter.

e. preferably use a cable to connect to USB because the stick versions break off easily.

f. ideally not cost more than $100 but cost is not too critical. So if you know a really good one that is more I am still all ears.

g. allow easy driver loading, ideally right from that sound card.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg
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Had to solve similar problem recently. Sound Blaster THX HD.

It has all of that.

Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Designs

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Reply to
Vladimir Vassilevsky

Aha, this one, looks quite impressive:

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Thanks, Vladimir. I am planning to do noise sensitive phase measurements with it, where one input channel is the reference and the other comes from the device under test. Excitation is also from the sound card.

--
Regards, Joerg 

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

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... and it's ordered.

[...] 
--
Regards, Joerg 

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

My only complaint about Creative cards is they have a lot of bloatware. You can avoid the bloat with a custom installation.

Depending on what you are doing, those cheap ass Chinese cards on ebay with C-Media chips have the advantage that you can open the box and get to the guts, i.e. pull the PCB. Useful if you want a more direct connection to the data converters. Or if you want to incorporate it in a box with other electronics.

There is no brand name, but they look like the photo in ebay item

190490619104. The PCB slides out of the case for easy hacking. It might not be a bad idea to get one as Plan B.

The C-Media chips work great under linux usb sound.

Reply to
miso

Right now the goal is to nuy the best quality that is reasonably available. Since Vladimir said this the "the" sound interface for USB I ordered it. Long term things may have to be integrated and then it'll either be full custom where we actually buy the sound chips or buy something as a module that has a high chance of being around for a few years as a product.

--
Regards, Joerg 

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

These C-media chip based cards have been around about 8 years. Like all manufacturers, they change the product as new chips come out. Of course, I have no clue who makes the cards.

The advantage to the C-media board is you can easily clone the circuit. That would be harder to do with Creative. C-Media sells chips while Creative sells complete systems.

I've been burnt by Creative. They used to make video cards. I gave a friend an old card, but it took me a while to find the driver because freakin' Creative pulled the drivers from their website. They have a habit of not supporting old gear. They must have been suing people who hosted the old driver since it was not to be found on the internet anywhere. Fortunately I found the CD.

Anyway, at this point, Asus is making the best soundcards, but only a few dB better that Creative. But for what I consider basic instrumentation, the cheap C-media cards can't be beat, simply due to the linux support. Alsa has C-media down.

Reply to
miso

Longer term we won't need it, we'll design our own system. This is to get us over the first hurdles on the cheap, without shelling out a lot for NRE.

Linux support isn't important to me. This will all be Windows-based since the underlying SW is. The main concern I have is noise, more so than the dynamic range.

--
Regards, Joerg 

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

Trying to buy quality, with unseen goods, is a perilous enterprise. Spec sheets for consumer items are ...unhelpful. Buy samples and test and/or dissect, works better.

I'd recommend you try an iMic (product of Griffin Technology); it has a good long history, 16-bit input/output audio digitization, uses 24-bit converters, has a line/mic selector switch... and it's small and inexpensive. As for detailed specifications:

(hey, I told you not to expect much information!).

Reply to
whit3rd

sheets

works

Quote "So our engineers made the decision to keep the iMic within certain basic parameters and not release a detailed spec sheet".

Hmm, yeah, well ... :-)

It's probably quite good but I've already ordered the Sound Blaster THX HD that Vladimir recommended. It arrived yesterday but I couldn't fire it up because another emergency came up. As they usually do on Fridays. The weekend is shot as well because SWMBO said it is time to paint the house. So we'll start power-washing shortly and there's buckets of Sherwin-Williams Duration waiting be transferred from bucket to wall. Fred Bloggs from our midst had recommended that brand, plus they had a

40% off sale. 
--
Regards, Joerg 

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

Hey, Vladimir, do you know if the MIC input is monaural? Has 5.1V phantom supply on both pins but I get only one of the channels to work. For Line both work.

The manual is in some CFM format, as in unreadable. Pretty stupid decision on their part not to ship PDF. I've asked for one but not sure if they'll respond. Their web site looks as if customer contact is not very desired. Had to email their inverstor relations guy.

--
Regards, Joerg 

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

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