In case anyone is contemplating an I/O solution for a laptop
computer recording setup, consider the E-Mu 1616m, on sale
at Sam Ash. (Maybe less someplace else.)

I threw down four bones yesterday for one. (Had to drive to
the West Hollywood store to get it, but what's three hours
out of my life...)

I've just been playing with it for a few hours, so don't
have a great feel for it yet. Next week I've got six choirs
to record for the Disneyland holiday choir auditions, so it
will give a good chance to try it out.

Before buying, I contacted E-Mu tech support with a couple
of questions:
Can the front end be used separately as a mic preamp/ADDA
converter/DA?
No. It has to be connected to the PCMCIA card in the
computer.
(I was hoping it could be used standalone as a front end to
the Marantz PMD 670)

Can all of the outputs be used simultaneously?
Yes, except when using high sample rates. There is a
discussion in the manual about it.

E-Mu's website mentioned incompatibility issues with some
PCMCIA controllers. As luck would have it, my new Dell
Inspiron 6000D has the controller that appears to be
incompatible. On testing the 1616, so far I haven't found
any problems.

Might be a good solution, especially if you can utilize
three balanced stereo pairs on 1/4", S/PDIF, and two
channels of ADAT optical simultaneously or in any
combination. As well as the recording channels (ASIO) going
into the computer.

And the RIAA phono inputs/preamps are kind of a nice
feature.

Seems like quite a nice package for the price.

Worth looking into if you're looking into this sort of
thing.



TM

Emu is hitting home runs with their "M" series of stuff. Great
converters, hardware architecture, and build quality. I find the
software layer it uses to be overly sprawling, but damn if it doesn't
sound killer.

The phono inputs are a great feature. Somebody is thinking over at
that place.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Emu is hitting home runs with their "M" series of stuff. Great
converters, hardware architecture, and build quality. I find the
software layer it uses to be overly sprawling, but damn if it doesn't
sound killer.

The phono inputs are a great feature. Somebody is thinking over at
that place.


Yes, overall audio quality and the feature set are sensational for the
price.

Predrag