Soundcard suggestions

Hi DJ Buik!

There *are* no cards that match all those specs, in that price range.

Looking at the cards that ARE in that price range, for example M Audio Delta Audiophile 192, and ESI Juli@, you get TWO analog channels — not four. It is unlikely that another manufacturer would offer more channels at the same price.

However — if you can use the Digital Output as L/R, then either of the two above cards will do the trick. Please note however that the Digital Output will be also be running at 192 kHz — whatever is receiving that digital signal will also have to handle that sampling rate.

In BBP ASIO, RDS Airomate In can come from a pipeline, so the sound card needs no channels for that. You will also be able to have a MONO analog studio line out, Stereo Digital Studio Out (192k) while also having a Analog MPX out. This basically meets your specs from standard AP192 or ESI Juli@ cards.

Best,
///Leif

Thank you for the vote of confidence 🙂.

I normally use a modified M Audio Delta Audiophile 192. It’s pretty good out of the box, but by adding in larger capacitors to the output, Tilt is reduced to almost nothing!

See the following instructions:

http://mpxtool.com/site/hardware-mods/3 … 2-mod.html

Most of this page deals with the INPUT. For BBP, you’re only interested in the Output — just search the page for "output" and you’ll find the instructions near the bottom.

I do not personally have an ESI Juli@, but I have all the following cards, and they all work fine with BBP:

Marian Trace 8 – 192k, 8 channels, DC straight outputs — no tilt!
Emu 0404 USB – USB 2.0, 192k, 2 channels.
Emu 0202 USB – USB 2.0, 192k, 2 channels.
Edirol UA-101 – USB 2.0, 192k, 8 channels.
Edirol FA-101 – Firewire, 192k, 8 channels.
LynxTWO – 192k, 4 channels. However, this card is EXPENSIVE, and you’d think that at this price, it’d be excellent — but it’s really not. Mediocre tilt performance, both input and output, prone to overheating etc.

All the above cards support ASIO, but there’s one more variable — the available block sizes.

BBP ASIO, for optimum latency, needs ASIO block size 256 samples (at 192 KHz).
Next best is 512 samples, but any other size will mean buffering an extra latency.

The EMU USB interfaces and the Edirol USB/Firewire interfaces do not have those buffer sizes due to driver limitations. Thus, I cannot recommend them unless you have no choice (i.e. running it on a laptop). They’ll work, but you’ll lose a few milliseconds of latency, and EVERY millisecond counts if you’re planning to monitor off air.

If you’re OK with using the low latency studio output, and not monitoring off air, it’s much less critical, and the USB / Firewire cards would then be absolutely fine.

For the cheapest ASIO sound card with flat response and no tilt, get the M Audio Delta Audiophile 192, and do the modification. All you need to do is to add two capacitors.

Best,
///Leif

Hello Leif, i post the thread so as not to create a new one.
First of all sorry for my English.

I have an audio card Terratec Aureon Space, works perfectly with Breakaway on MPX.
Know? work well? I recommend or buy another?

Thank you

@DJ Buik: I don’t know how I missed that diagram the first time around! That looks nice 🙂.

Sfinx: I don’t know about the VIA Envy24. I haven’t tried it. I do know about VIA VT1708B (found on for example Asus P5KPL-AM) and it’s CRAP. If you scope the output when you play a 57 kHz sine wave, the output is nowhere close to a sine wave. This means the card will be spewing ultrasonic garbage into the transmitter. Not recommended.

///Leif

Hey Leif, any chance of a future version of BPP ASIO supporting 96000 Hz sampling rate? Currently testing with a Edirol FA-66, unfortunately the 192 kHz rate disables the optical in/out on this unit.

Thanks for reading!

jay