"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
. ..
"TT" wrote in message
Have a look at
http://www.creative.com/products/pro...roduct=1 3552
I am running these at home on a laptop hooked up to a CEC
DX71 DAC as music server. This is a professional audio
recording unit and should suit your requirements.
Historically, the biggest problem with EMu's hardware has been that the
WMA support has been weak. Specifically, the WMA drivers haven't fully
supported the high resolution audio features of the card which can be
important for measurements.
So TT, what happens when you try to run the freeware Audio Rightmark
program on the EMu 1616m in 24/192 mode?
OK I will try and explain what I have done and why. I do not use this card
as a DAC, I use a CEC DX71
http://www.cec-web.co.jp/products/dac/dx71mk2_e.html
Why? Because it will take a AES/EBU digital input and the EMU will output
that *AND* allows the clock function to be moved from the EMU card to the
CEC DAC. Overkill? Yes :-) Now the EMU allows a lot of inputs inc. a RIAA
phono stage and it will be a perfect integration into my set up. The CEC
DAC is *also* a pre-amp that uses balanced outputs which suits my power amp
very nicely as well.
I see that it has 2 different types of line inputs, which should be
tested individually. It would appear to match Graham's requirements as all
6 analog ins and outs are speced to be balanced.
I've seen some partial test results for this device and it seems to be
very much in the running.
Also because it has an RJ45 connector from PCMCIA card to
the break out box I have used normal CAT5 to extend the 1m
lead length to 8m so it can be run remotely.
Nice.
Now Arny please don't get much of a swelled ego from what I am going to say
next :-) You have berated me (and others) for years over the "alleged"
audio improvements of SACD/DVD-A over Red Book CD. Since the all certain
demise of these formats and the imminent mass introduction of DMR I have
decided to wring every last drop of performance out of CD as I can. Guess
what? (gloating time here for you) This new set up of mine puts to shame my
hi-res stuff (2 ch of course).
My turn now. Despite what you have said before about over sampling IMHO it
does work and not all DACs are created equal either.
I have nearly put my whole CD collection on HD (and backed up on another
external HD as well) and access the files over the wireless network via the
laptop. I don't care about Windows and drivers as you have rightly pointed
out they don't like their res stuff and so I have been using Nero Show Time
with good success. The laptop solution was chosen instead of a HTPC because
of noise, heat, size issues etc. and the storage is elsewhere so the laptop,
a Compaq Pressariov500 with a cooler AMD chip is a cheap (quiet) computer.
BTW I'm still tweaking and getting know what this will do but my early
"subjective" opinions are very good. As yet I have still got to run some
DBTs with a switch box I have constructed which will switch the two pre-amps
over at the power amp so time synching and level matching should be a
breeze.
I hope I explained that well enough ;-)
Regards TT