Another Budget DAC

[Labarum]

I think the original thread of this name must have got lost in the recent problem.

I drew attention to a discussion on another forum about the EMU 0404 USB 2 DAC which will run to 24/192 with special drivers using a well implemented USB2 port. UK price £150.

http://www.emu.com/products/product....Specifications

The thread should be read here

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/node/1420?page=2

And this from the (presently) latest post should be noted:

Next, for fun, my friend wanted to compare the EMU to his Apogee setup for playback just to see what the differences would be. We loaded the same HRX cut onto both out PC's and using two inputs on his preamp and matching levels we could easily toggle between the $200 EMU 0404 and the $3500 Rosetta/Big Ben combo. Well, I promised him I would not go onto any forums and describe what we heard (he's still in disbelief I'm sure) so I'll just leave it at this: EMU 0404 USB owners can also "rest easy" that they are getting truly state of the are high resolution sound out of this little $200 "wonder-box".

I am tempted to give it a go, even though it has a cheap plastic case.

[leo]

Sounds interesting Brian, must have a read up about it
I'm still hunting for ways to send 24/192k to my Sabre dac

[Labarum]

Sounds interesting Brian, must have a read up about it
I'm still hunting for ways to send 24/192k to my Sabre dac

Then you need to set some time aside to read the whole thread!

[leo]

It looks a hell of a lot of dac for the money main thing which interested me was USB 24/192k , huge amount of handy features and some well specified internal hardware

[Labarum]

Numbers aren't everything, I would like to know how it stacks up against the Standac - 24/96

http://www.beresford.me/main/main.html

and the Edirol UA-25EX, which is also highly respected - 24/96.

http://www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=10185

http://www.edirol.net/products/en/UA-25EX/

[leo]

Numbers aren't everything, I would like to know how it stacks up against the Standac - 24/96

]

Exactly, I already have two dacs which are high quality when playing 16/44.1 , it seems the EMU can also output high res digital to my dacs though which would be handy, its nice to have the option

[ReachtheSky]

Brian, the EMU 0404 performance might have something to do with the AK4396 "miracle" dac chip that it uses? The AK4396 has received load of good reviews.
Granville

[Labarum]

Brian, the EMU 0404 performance might have something to do with the AK4396 "miracle" dac chip that it uses? The AK4396 has received load of good reviews.
Granville

I guess so. At the price it will have fairly basic supporting circuitry, but since most of the work is done in the chip . . .

[foxysounds]

It should be pointed out that there are 2 versions of the EMU0404 - one is a USB soundcard and the other is a PCI soundcard which means that while it might be great for PC audio, even the USB version probably can't be used stand-alone. It can do zero-latency monitoring which means that inputs will be processed via the onboard DSP (if enabled) and then sent to the outputs without the PC getting involved (if you set it up to route that way) but you would need the PC to set up the routing. It isn't clear from the description on the EMU website whether the USB version is buss-powered and whether the routing information is stored in the device itself so it's possible that without a PC even the USB version does nothing.

OTOH, it is, of course, an ADC as well as a DAC so if you happen to need an ADC too and you're wanting something for PC audio it may be perfect for you.

Comparing it to any stand-alone DAC is therefore not really useful IMHO.

Simon.

[foxysounds]

Stan's new DAC (the TC-7520), of course, can be used stand-alone as well as being half a soundcard (it performs the output duties of a soundcard but not the input duties) so if you use it for PC audio via its USB input you would need an additional soundcard in order to (for example) use a Skype headset or capture audio from your TT onto your PC. This is not a problem because Windows doesn't mind how many soundcards you have (I don't know if the same is true for Macs).

Simon.