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wrote in message
oups.com
OK, I'd like to get some input on this one, as there may
be some "unknown unknowns" to consider:
(opens can of worms)
I have several M Audio Delta 1010LT souncards that I have
been using successfully for multitracking in a DAW of my
own assemblage. Recently, a friend of mine mentioned that
Black Lion Audio is offering an upgrade package for the
1010. I was intrigued, and did some comparative listening
to recordings I've made through the 1010's and recordings
I made a few years back on a Roland VSR-880. I noticed a
difference in the sound quality- I perceived less clarity
in the newer recordings.
There's your first logical mistake - the use of a less-than-reference
quality standard, the Roland VSR-880. I'm not saying that *your* Roland
VSR-880 is less than sonically transparent, but there's no a priori reason
to believe that it remains perfectly transparent.
I'm not saying that *your* 1010LT is sonically transparent, but there's no a
priori reason to believe that it is less than sonically transparent. What
I'm saying is that you are comparing 2 unknowns. If they are the same or
different, what does that mean?
On top of that, there's some doubt that your comparison was
carefully-controlled, IOW recordings of the identical same inputs,
level-matched and blind.
I'm not saying that *your* 1010LT is sonically transparent, but there's no a
priori reason to believe that it is less than sonically transparent. What
I'm saying is that you are comparing 2 unknowns. If they are the same or
different, what does that mean?
The *right* way to test an audio interface is to loop the outputs to the
inputs, re-record some representative music, and then do a blind, level
matched comparison of the origional recording to the copy. Then, you're
comparing your audio interface to a known standard - whatever you used to
tie the inputs to the outputs, which in the case of the 1010LT is its
built-in connector bundle.
If you have even the most basic DAW software and skills, you can set this up
as a comparison of 2 level-matched, time-synched stereo .wav files using
test administration software that you can download for free from
www.pcabx.com .
You can apply this technique to both the 1010LT and the Roland VSR-880. You
might be surprised by the results.