N-th E-MU 0404 USB Impression [quick n dirty]

I'll keep it short and simple:

• I do not have golden ears, if the sound quality improves only a smidgen I probably can't tell.
• This is my first proper source (besides a consumer SONY portable CD player, the other one's a crappy on-board sound card).
• I use built-in amp instead of dedicated amp.

Impressions, listed chronologically as I listens to it:

1. Black background, really black... I can barely hear my computer humming through the closed DT770pro between musical passages (I think I need to relocate).
2. Finally start to hear major differences with my violin solo albums: Juicy, full-bodied sound with sharp leading edge (I'm not sure I'm using the right terminologies but I tried). Detail wise it is showing more, but not as more as I thought probably due to diminishing return kicking in. But already I think my old on-board sound card should be water-boarded for de-facing the beautiful music so much.
3. Soundstage.... this is first time I find big changes in soundstage. Everything is much more accurate. I can actually start to tell where sounds are coming from now. Needs more time on this since its too early to tell much.
4. Dynamics, the whole frequency range seems to just open up, lows are nice, juicy, full -bodied and the highs are the same. Damn nice.
5. Bass, the bass comes alive, body and slam is now much more pronounced and satisfying, finally letting the DT770pro's reputation as a bass monster shine through: listening to "Maria Maria" from Santana's Supernatural, and the deep end just slam home!

Its harder to tell the difference if I'm playing rock songs where lots are going on, but once I popin the violin solo the improvements are apparent.

Conclusions:
I think this is a big and worthy upgrade. If you are going this route I would recommend EMU 0404 USB as a nice first source + amp upgrade if you use computer due to...

1. Being an external device allows one to be able to get away from internal computer noise;
2. Can be moved around to different computers/laptop in the house;
3. Act as stand-alone DAC for other equipments;
4. Offering high quality digital out (if you don't already - my desktop don't have it) for when you upgrade your DAC;
5. Offering various other options as a professional studio sound card (such as very good Mic input for recording for multimedia students/users);
6. Great value! (especially if you buy used)

Advice: buy used if you can - someone will burn it in for you, upgrade firmware, perform quality control, and then sell it to you for lower price .

Hopefully this is short enough, too the point, and informative.

P.S> I'm really liking how my DT770pro responded to the hugely improved highs, it gets there enough to be emotional, but restrains enough to avoid fatigue. An extremely enjoyable listen.

Mini-update of sort...

I had the EMU for a day and a half now, and just increasingly appreciating the nuance of the music I listen to due to improved source. Even 128kbps mp3 sound better than ever (and 320kbps sounds even better!).

I'm now a full believer in balanced upgrade (source, amp, headphone). However due to the quality of regular consumer gears it normally goes headphone->source->amp to maximize the jump in audio quality with incremental upgrades. I basically did this: headphone->amp->sold amp->very good source + decent built-in amp (EMU) so I lost a bit but learnt a lot more. Thankfully I started this hobby by buying stuff here so no big loss at all.

lol, nobody replied... but I'm still going to post a final piece of update.

I had it for another day, and I just love it more and more with the DT770pro, everything sounds refined and defined, bass looses all the bloats and is fast, precise, extends even deeper and gives clear sense of direction (when it is there in the music of course); guitars riffs are so crunchy and juicy it is such a joy.

I think I have finally listen to my DT770pro as it is meant to be listened, and it is finally resolving details that it is capable of resolving. I especially love the precision and power the bass now has. Together with finesse of the midrange and the restrained, powerful highs... I think I'm in musical heaven.

I used onboard sound / Macbook Pro headphone out before the source upgrade to EMU 0404 USB.

My amp before this was the Heed Canamp, but I'm just not feeling any significant upgrade in sound like I thought there would be. My guess as stated is that it pretty much maxed out my source, so that's why I sold it to finance the source upgrade. I am very glad that I did so.

From what I understand, noise can come from interference (EMI) as well as power (quality of power itself from the power supply, as well as noise generated by other component that share the said power supply), so just cramming the EMU in the case would not offer any solid clues to what would have happen if it was an onboard solution - not that it is possible to cram the EMU in there, it is quite big.

I'm not sure what kind of PC you have, but my onboard sound card on my PC has a lot of noise, and it is quite easy to hear at regular listening volume. This was one of the main reason that drove me to upgrade the source, I didn't want to take ANY chance of introducing noise into the music again.

It really depends on the kind of setup you have, mine is just a regular consumer brand-name (Medion) PC, so I went with the EMU 0404 USB to avoid problems. I'm sure there exists plenty of setups out there that don't have perceivable noise problems.

The potential noise issue is only one advantage of going external and going 0404, I wanted to use it with my laptop too, and I like the fact that I am not locked-in with PCI which is being replaced with PCI-Express.

I haven't seen any internal solution around the price range of a used / on-special EMU 0404 USB (around and below $130~$140) that offers better sound quality from what was said here in the forums - there are people who prefer the 1212m (from EMU as well), but there are even more people who like the 0404 USB, so....

Of course if one wants to play games that needs directional audio support then internal card is probably better, but we're talking audio quality here for music so that doesn't apply.

Finally as for "regurgitating what I've been hearing on the forums" I did learn this from the forum and it made sense, just like how they keep saying source upgrade is more important than amp upgrade.

I didn't listen and went to get an expensive amp (Heed) with crap source and I was disappointed. I paid heed (pun intended) to their advice and upgraded my source with the EMU, and I was delighted.

It is good to be skeptical, but it doesn't make sense to disregard solid advice.

Glad you're enjoying the Heed as well.

I was and am really enthusiastic about the whole ordeal because I just went through the best part of the diminishing return curve. However I have to seriously sit down and ask myself how much further I am willing to go in this hobby.

The sky is the limit really, but how much am I willing to spend? I have tons of other hobbies like digital photography (currently owns a Rebel XT + 30mm 1.4L USM as main rig), nothing is cheap and there's only so much funds to go around.

I could see myself getting a decent, solid amp and maybe an alternative open headphone for switching, however I am very happy with my current setup of EMU + DT770pro which already fulfills my expectation of a hi-fi experience.

Decisions decisions....