E-MU 0404 vs 1212m vs Soundstorm

E

Eric1285

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Okay, so I had a sudden influx of unexpected cash. Much of it is going to pay off my credit card bills, but some of it can be spent on an audio upgrade. I'm trying to decide whether it's worth upgrading from my Soundstorm mobo to a E-MU card, and if so, which one I should choose. My current setup is:

Soundstorm digital coax output
Onkyo TX-SR501 Receiver
Pair of Klipsch RB-35 bookshelf speakers
Velodyne VX-10 Subwoofer

It's a nice little setup that I just finished putting together. Everything sounds pretty good to me, although I know there's plenty of room for improvement. I'll be building off this system for the next few years, constantly upgrading. It will probably evolve into my main system once I graduate (still a freshman now) and enter the real world. Anyways, I figure the weakest link in their right now is either the output from my computer or the receiver. The receiver would cost too much to upgrade, so I'm thinking the best idea is to go with a new sound card.

My budget is up to about $200...it can be stretched a little more than that, but I would prefer not to. I would also prefer to spend as little as possible. That being said, if there's something out there signifigantly better than what I'm considering for a little more than my budget, I'd like to hear about it.

I know my current setup produces sound that's on the "bright" side. I like that. I'm happy with the brightness. I'd rather not get any more bright though, because songs with a lot of treble like the Beatles are getting very very bright.

I will be using the digital output on whatever card I buy, probably coax since I already have a nice cable for that (my cables are custom made by my friend). I know Soundstorm is currently the only card that can encode to DD 5.1 on the fly. I will eventually be upgrading to a 5.1 system, but that probably won't happen for at the very least, 2 or 3 years. So that's not a huge deal for me right now. However, if I do upgrade, I want to know if I will be able to switch between Soundstorm and whatever card I buy, so that stuff that needs to be encoded to 5.1 can be played through my Soundstorm, and other stuff like music can be run through the new card.

I mainly use my system for watching movies and listening to music. Music is much more important to me, since most of my movies are Divx/xvid backsups and the sound isn't fantastic on them anyways. As for music, I listen to a lot of Alternative and Acoustic rock. A little bit of pop rock, a lot of jazz (so a warm sound isn't necessarily bad, but I just seem to like my brightness). That's about it. Bands I listen to are something like:

Guster
Dispatch
O.A.R.
Train
The Wallflowers
Counting Crows

So, basically I'm looking for a card to improve the quality of my music. I want to know if it's worth upgrading from Soundstorm to an E-MU solution. I've heard of several new cards on the horizon, such as an add-on solution from Nvidia, and new cards that will be able to do what soundstorm does. Quality however, is far more important than features at this point. My Klipsch speakers bring out every flaw in my system, and I'm looking to eliminate them one by one.

I've also heard about modded E-MU cards...where can I find more info on these, and approximately how much does it cost and what are the benefits?

As a last note, I've heard of a lot of compatability issues with the E-MU cards. Should I have any trouble in Windows XP, with an Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo, Radeon 9800 Pro, and Athlon 3200+ processor?

Thanks for the input guys, sorry for the long post. I tried to be as detailed as I could.
 
The EMU cards are stereo only pro-sumer level recording cards.
Soundstorm = a multichannel gaming solution that encodes DD on the fly.
Apples and oranges. ;)

The problem is your Onkyo only has one coax input so I would keep the soundstorm for moovys and feed the analog out from whatever EMU card you pickup to say the tape input.
That way you keep the best part of both cards.:)


(Although I do find the coax solution to be cleaner and more detailed on my 1212M/TX-SR502 combo)
 
Mister X said:
The EMU cards are stereo only pro-sumer level recording cards.
Soundstorm = a multichannel gaming solution that encodes DD on the fly.
Apples and oranges. ;)

The problem is your Onkyo only has one coax input so I would keep the soundstorm for moovys and feed the analog out from whatever EMU card you pickup to say the tape input.
That way you keep the best part of both cards.:)


(Although I do find the coax solution to be cleaner and more detailed on my 1212M/TX-SR502 combo)
Click to expand...

Well, what I really wanted to know is whether the E-MU 0404 would be an improvement over my Soundstorm for music and movies. I don't think I play any games that utilize multichannel audio. I thought that the E-MU (and anything else with a digital output) could send a 5.1 feed if it was already encoded in DD (like DVD's).
 
I thought that the E-MU (and anything else with a digital output) could send a 5.1 feed if it was already encoded in DD (like DVD's).
Click to expand...

I wish.... The EMU card cant do that
 
Mister X said:
I wish.... The EMU card cant do that
Click to expand...

Ah, all right...well, I'll always have soundstorm. I guess I could use the optical output from the E-MU and then use the Coax from the soundstorm. I won't have any compatability issues will I?

So I guess I should get the E-MU 0404? It's worth the upgrade from Soundstorm, and the 1212 doesn't offer as drastic an improvement?
 
The 1212M does offer slightly more detail but is a little more laid back then the 0404
Makes it a tough choise doesn't it? :D

Yea, the rest of it sounds like a good plan. :)
But there is one caveat..... keep the cable less then 10 feet for the Optical or you run into signal degradation issues.
 
Yeah, I'll have to find short cables. I guess I'll go with the 0404...I love brightness and detail, but I also like my music to be...musical.
 
It sounds like the 0404 would be a great fit for your setup.... and that is why I skirted around a few of your questions. :)
Do you use the NEO mode in your Onkyo at all?
Cause I kinda like it from the Coax on my 1212M for some things. :D
 
What's the NEO mode? I may be using it but I don't know....I set everything up a while ago and sort of just forgot about it.
 
Oh yeah, a few last questions...

What about modded E-MU cards? What are the benefits, what do the mods do, and how are they done? I've heard of a company called fiddler selling replacement cables that are supposed to be a lot better than the ones that it comes with.
 
I am sure someone is gonna explain this better then I did but.....
NEO 6 processing = DTS matrixing.
It takes a stereo source and turns it into a multichannel audio format similar to what Prologic does (but it sounds better).

As far as mods go....
The fiddler cable seeks to eliminate the connectors on the dongle.
I have built a few of them and they are kinda cool but they don't help the performance all that much.

Opamp swap on the card = Better high frequency extension, clearer bass, faster attack, and more details (almost to a fault)
(the stock opamps on those cards are crap for audio)
Signal coupling cap bypass = a nice improvement in clarity when you can implement it.
(those caps are there to limit the dc-offset on the cards and you can't just blindly bypass them or bad things happen)
 
Umm, aren't we missing the forest for the trees? I would guess that he needs to audition speakers. I highly doubt the source is the quality bottleneck. Sinking audio money into speakers is always a good bet.

Take a tour around the speaker market, and see what you hear. Klipsh is decent, but IMO, there is better for the $400-500 range.
 
You have a good point but I disagree.
I think the soundstorm implementation is the major bottleneck in his system now.
Once that is corrected that I would agree that speakers are the next bottleneck but that is another thread. :p
 
GodsMadClown said:
Umm, aren't we missing the forest for the trees? I would guess that he needs to audition speakers. I highly doubt the source is the quality bottleneck. Sinking audio money into speakers is always a good bet.

Take a tour around the speaker market, and see what you hear. Klipsh is decent, but IMO, there is better for the $400-500 range.
Click to expand...

I already have the Klipsch speakers...been using them for 3 months. I listened to a lot of speakers in the $300-700 price range, and these were the ones that I liked best. I auditioned a bunch of B&W's, Paradigms, Infinity's and such, but the Klipsch had the sound that suited my taste best.
 
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