[Iron_Dreamer]

Alone : http://www-scf.usc.edu/~miklic/RMAA/...MU%201212M.htm

Compared to the E-MU (Chaintech unbalanced, E-MU balanced, to simulate unbalanced results, raise the noise floor 6dB): http://www-scf.usc.edu/~miklic/RMAA/AV710vs1212M.htm

I mean, sure the E-MU smokes the Chaintech, even if you compensate for the balanced vs unbalanced issue, but for the price difference, it should. What you can see in the graphs does translate into real listening, i.e. blacker background, more clarity, better defined treble, etc.

Unless people need the extra features of the M-Audio or other cards, I really see no compelling reason to buy a card other than the Chaintech, at the low end, until one has enough to upgrade to the EMU.

 

[fewtch]

The figures for the Emu are just plain stunning. Wish I could run it, but I'm on Win98SE. I'm almost (not quite but almost) tempted to switch to Win2K to use the EMU, that's how good it looks measurement-wise. Those are mastering-studio worthy figures. Maybe after I get another hard drive, I'll set up a Win2K dual boot.

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer Alone : http://www-scf.usc.edu/~miklic/RMAA/...MU%201212M.htm Compared to the E-MU (Chaintech unbalanced, E-MU balanced, to simulate unbalanced results, raise the noise floor 6dB): http://www-scf.usc.edu/~miklic/RMAA/AV710vs1212M.htm I mean, sure the E-MU smokes the Chaintech, even if you compensate for the balanced vs unbalanced issue, but for the price difference, it should. What you can see in the graphs does translate into real listening, i.e. blacker background, more clarity, better defined treble, etc. Unless people need the extra features of the M-Audio or other cards, I really see no compelling reason to buy a card other than the Chaintech, at the low end, until one has enough to upgrade to the EMU.

That seems to be a pretty fair assesment. The only other consideration is if you need something to be portable. In that case, an M-Audio card is a consideration, though there are many possible substitutes such as the Opto Play or Indigo.

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch The figures for the Emu are just plain stunning. Wish I could run it, but I'm on Win98SE. I'm almost (not quite but almost) tempted to switch to Win2K to use the EMU, that's how good it looks measurement-wise. Those are mastering studio worthy figures.

Just curious, what would stop your from switching to Win2k? It's a much more stable OS. There is always the option to dual boot the machine.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper994 Just curious, what would stop your from switching to Win2k? It's a much more stable OS. There is always the option to dual boot the machine.

Mostly inertia, I've got Win98SE so tuned and tweaked that I don't want to lose all that work. Also, I've got some VxD-based software that just plain won't run on Win2K. It could probably be replaced, at some considerable time and expense. Dual boot is a good idea tho (if a pain in the tail), but I'd want another hard drive first.

Edit... it seems I have a 10 or 20 gigger lying around here, maybe I'll use it. Can Win2K be installed on a secondary, logical partition?

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch The figures for the Emu are just plain stunning. Wish I could run it, but I'm on Win98SE. I'm almost (not quite but almost) tempted to switch to Win2K to use the EMU, that's how good it looks measurement-wise. Those are mastering-studio worthy figures. Maybe after I get another hard drive, I'll set up a Win2K dual boot.

Once you go Win2K, you won't give 98se another thought. Unless you have some really old legacy programs that won't work in Win2K.

Well, another thing is what's your computer's specs? You would at least need 256MB of RAM. and preferrably a Pentium III level computer. You can get away with a Pentium II level one, and heheh, I've had no problems with Win2K on my old Pentium Pro machine, which has long since been retired.

-Ed

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Mostly inertia, I've got Win98SE so tuned and tweaked that I don't want to lose all that work. Also, I've got some VxD-based software that just plain won't run on Win2K. It could probably be replaced, at some considerable time and expense. Dual boot is a good idea tho (if a pain in the tail), but I'd want another hard drive first.

It's really not that bad, our kitchen computer is dual boot and I set one of my friends up that way. For the most part things work very well that way.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Once you go Win2K, you won't give 98se another thought. Unless you have some really old legacy programs that won't work in Win2K.

Yes that's what I said, I have a bunch of really old legacy programs that won't work under Win2K. Many of them I use daily.
Quote:

Well, another thing is what's your computer's specs? You would at least need 256MB of RAM. and preferrably a Pentium III level computer.

No problem there.

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Once you go Win2K, you won't give 98se another thought. Unless you have some really old legacy programs that won't work in Win2K. Well, another thing is what's your computer's specs? You would at least need 256MB of RAM. and preferrably a Pentium III level computer. You can get away with a Pentium II level one, and heheh, I've had no problems with Win2K on my old Pentium Pro machine, which has long since been retired. -Ed

Actually I often find that Win2k is better for legacy machines since it does nice things like a better job of allocating memory.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Mostly inertia, I've got Win98SE so tuned and tweaked that I don't want to lose all that work. Also, I've got some VxD-based software that just plain won't run on Win2K. It could probably be replaced, at some considerable time and expense. Dual boot is a good idea tho (if a pain in the tail), but I'd want another hard drive first. Edit... it seems I have a 10 or 20 gigger lying around here, maybe I'll use it. Can Win2K be installed on a secondary, logical partition?

If you want to keep both systems completely separate you could try a hard drive selector like the Romtec Trios.

-Ed

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Mostly inertia, I've got Win98SE so tuned and tweaked that I don't want to lose all that work. Also, I've got some VxD-based software that just plain won't run on Win2K. It could probably be replaced, at some considerable time and expense. Dual boot is a good idea tho (if a pain in the tail), but I'd want another hard drive first. Edit... it seems I have a 10 or 20 gigger lying around here, maybe I'll use it. Can Win2K be installed on a secondary, logical partition?

Not that I'm aware of... If you're willing to make a small investment, there are mobo's these days that will allow you to select with HD to boot from so you can have different OS's on each.

 

[Jasper994]

LOL! It seems as though a couple of us are very anxious to help you spend your money...

 

[fewtch]

Nothing new around here...

I'll probably still put off upgrading, but those RMAA results from the Emu make me dizzy. Especially IMD and THD... mind blowing. That has got to equal or beat many high-end standalone CDP's.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

FYI my mods to the EMU didn't change the RMAA results for it, so I suspect that the ADC is the limiting factor of those figures, meaning that the DAC is even better than the test results would indicate

All I know is that I was in heaven today listening to Haydn's 104th, like I've neve been before

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Nothing new around here... I'll probably still put off upgrading, but those RMAA results from the Emu make me dizzy. Especially IMD and THD... mind blowing. That has got to equal or beat many high-end standalone CDP's.

I'm really curious on that one... hopefully we get a chance to do a good comparison at the meet.

Of course it's always possible that one of the "soundcards suck" people with a good enough CDP will be tempted enough to give it a shot and do so with an open/unbiased mind...