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To further cut costs, M Audio no longer bothers to answer the phone all that much. If you are tech savy, you may want to take a chance on this card. Unfortunately, the manufacturer skimped on printed instructions--they haven't changed in years and still refer to Windows 98 (no kidding). There is a long list of driver installs and system changes necessary to make the card work. bought two of these in order to slide old PCs into my audio component stacks and use them as digital jukeboxes. I found the ASUS Xonar Essence which offers superior sound quality.and even an up to date installation manual. Good luck with that. And if you are calling more than 30 days after buying the product.they provide a number for "support" from a third party for $2.60 a minute--not US based and not intelligent.
I was planning to buy a third card but passsed because of the poor customer service. Avid/M Audio's stated call center hours are M-F 9-5 Pacific time but closed from 12-2 for training. Installation is not all that simple because the existing PC audio drivers battle with the new audio card. If you need instructions or after purchase support, forget it. I got intelligent US based help with my first card but with the second I've never been able to get someone on the phone and so that PC is silent. Even within that limited window, I waited for more than an hour and still never got to speak to a human. Glad I did. Guess they want repeat customers.
I popped it in my computer, installed the drivers, bingo. Quickest install ever. You can download newer drivers from their website if need-be.It's been working great for the past few years now.
However, if you want an updated manual you are out of luck. This is a great sound card at a very reasonable price. There is no such thing the their website, only the same 2003 manual that ships with the card. M-audio also sells a 192 kHz card, but I'm not sure who needs that.Heads up if you are thinking of buying this card: the drivers and manual that come in the box are completely outdated. You will have to go to the M-audio website to download the updated driver for your system. Gimme a break. For that reason I'm taking away 1 star.
Presently using this sound card to do some music, audio editing sound files from USB turntable, mixing and more.Connecting musical instruments such as my keyboard and more is all good. Great sound card. The best i have used as compared to my creative lab sound blaster live 5.1. Would like to encourage other individuals that you're always right with M-Audio sound cards. Its the way to go.
I am an amateur home recording engineer. There are ASIO drivers for the motherboard sound cards, but you will still have the same lower quality if recording analog signals. Depending on your setup you might have to do the driver shuffle.
I run Windows XP with Ableton Live and Tracktion. That means that the card is roughly 4X CD data rate. Not wanting to spend 3 or 4 hundred for an audio interface, I when with this sound card.
The 24 is for the bit depth and 96 is max sample rate. This is a PCI card, so you need to open the computer and plug into a slot, if you have a spare one. The instructions were a little tedious, but I followed them and haven't had any problems since.
The card supports ASIO monitoring, which is a must for low latency monitoring if you are using virtual instruments. This card is solid.
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