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E-MU 1212M Best sound card for price range

post #1 of 22
4/25/08 at 2:10am
Thread Starter 
I've owned a bunch of sound cards (turtle beach, sb live, audigy, x-fi, etc) and I must say that the E-MU 1212M bests them all in the 2 channel department, i'm pretty sure (99%) even the e-mu 0404 which uses the AKM4395 DAC compared to the 1212M's Cirruc Logic CS4398. The sound is absolutely awesome!
*I recently changed out my x-fi which sounds muddy throughout all ranges*
note: It didn't work with vista for me so I had to reformat to vista to work. It also only uses 1/4 unbalanced connectors (I really hate it since I had to buy extra connectors).

I really hate how people post X-fi in their sigs because they're missing out on so much lol.

I'm sure the E-MU 0404 probably sounds just as good, but since I haven't tested it, I cannot attest for how it stacks up. The 1212m can be had on ebay for as low as $100 and worth every penny!

I'm mainly a tower speaker type person, so headphones is probably going to be added to it as well! *also note I have about $3k in audio equipment for a 2.1 channel system for just my computer so the difference is much more noticeable especially on horn loaded speakers *KLIPSCH FOREVER!**
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post #2 of 22
4/25/08 at 2:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dakayus View Post
*KLIPSCH FOREVER!**
I hope that was a joke. Glad to see that you like the 1212M, but I'm fairly certain that the 0404 USB beats any pci soundcards in its pricerange.
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post #3 of 22
4/25/08 at 5:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by triggerc View Post
I hope that was a joke. Glad to see that you like the 1212M, but I'm fairly certain that the 0404 USB beats any pci soundcards in its pricerange.
no
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post #4 of 22
4/25/08 at 10:38am
E-MU 1212M or x-fi prelude? i'm guessing prelude wins?
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post #5 of 22
4/25/08 at 11:51am
Thread Starter 
Good god. Lol are you guys sure? Geez I've been told so many times that the DAC on the 1212 was better... and wasted money. Argh time to go buy another sound card lol
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post #6 of 22
4/25/08 at 1:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by terrymx View Post
no
The joke part was directed at the *Klipsch Forever*
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post #7 of 22
4/25/08 at 2:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by triggerc View Post
The joke part was directed at the *Klipsch Forever*
I think he pointed that the 0404 USB part
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post #8 of 22
4/25/08 at 2:24pm
E-MU 1212M is very good indeed for the price! You'll not find any other soundcard with this grade of DACs for a given price! I highly recommend to install the latest set of drivers for it from E-MU Systems - Established 1971 - Emulator X2, Proteus X2, Digital Audio Systems, USB Audio/MIDI Interfaces, USB MIDI Controllers it improves stability and the sound quality + adds Vista compatibility!
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post #9 of 22
4/25/08 at 2:58pm
I know that it has a great DAC, but I'm still concerned with the interference from being an internal sound card. I'm fairly happy with my current X-Meridian right now, and I know it isn't as good as the 1212m in terms of components, but I still find the output not as clean as an external.
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post #10 of 22
4/25/08 at 3:42pm
triggerc,

1212m is dead quite and crystal clear comparing to all usb/firewire interfaces that I've tried so far! And these include Digidesign's MBox, MBox 2 Pro, some M-Audio & Edirol interfaces...
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post #11 of 22
4/25/08 at 5:39pm
Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 for 2 channel sound should give the E-MU a run for the money.

Well it is only 80 bucks from floridamusic...Okay...It ought to give the EMU1212 a run for less money.
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post #12 of 22
4/25/08 at 7:26pm
1212M is a great card, but it all depends on one's system; I mean, I run my 0404 strictly as a transport, so I'm not too fussed.

But hey, you can run balanced analogue directly from the 1212M - such a nice upgrade option to have.
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post #13 of 22
4/26/08 at 1:49am
The E-MU 1212M has some competition in its price range from the AuzenTech X-Fi Prelude, Audiotrak Prodigy HD2, and ASUS Xonar D2 series.

The difference between the 1212M and those cards, besides the DAC, is that the 1212M uses a daughter-card for the analog output section. This means that, unlike the other cards, the analog outputs are not directly coupled with the motherboard and the potentially dirty power coming through the PCI bus.
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post #14 of 22
4/26/08 at 4:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinitesymphony View Post
The E-MU 1212M has some competition in its price range from the AuzenTech X-Fi Prelude, Audiotrak Prodigy HD2, and ASUS Xonar D2 series.

The difference between the 1212M and those cards, besides the DAC, is that the 1212M uses a daughter-card for the analog output section. This means that, unlike the other cards, the analog outputs are not directly coupled with the motherboard and the potentially dirty power coming through the PCI bus.
So it is basically better as a digital transport?
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post #15 of 22
4/26/08 at 4:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by triggerc View Post
So it is basically better as a digital transport?
The 1212M has been very well-regarded as a digital transport; the digital output is super-clean judging by the results I've seen.

However, its analog output should still be in the running versus other cards in the same price range.
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