[Romanee]

Echo Audio, Inc. offers 3 Type II Cardbus (PCMCIA) "Notebook Pro Audio" cards that work on both PC and Mac:

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/CardBus/

Street prices (at B&H in NYC): Echo Indigo ($129), Echo Indigo IO ($179) and Echo Indigo DJ ($179):

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont....x=7&image.y=7

The reviews I've found have all been very favorable -- haven't yet found any negative reviews.

However . . . I haven't (yet) found a single comment or even a reference to these cards in the headfi forums.

I've got a Mac Titanium Powerbook G4 15.2" 1.25GHz laptop, which has a very convenient Type II Cardbus slot and the Echo Indigo cards seem to be "a good portable fit" -- but I'm not convinced they're worthwhile. AKG K501 is currently my phone of choice, but haven't settled on a (portable) headamp yet. (Maybe after the next NYC meet.)

I would appreciate some expert comments, based on personal experience.

 

[thomaspf]

I can offer my comment not necessarily expert ...

I use an Echo Indigo and have actually posted about it here before. I really like this solution for portable use on my laptop together with the high impedance ETYs.

When I compare this to my stationary headphone system (HD600 and EMP) I would say the Sennheiser with the tube amd has a little less detail but sounds warmer and more natural. This is of course a compound effect of the headphones and the amp.

I have also tried a Sonica and an Optoplay which I both find do not compare even close to the Echo Indigo.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[Romanee]

thomaspf -

Thanks for the reply! I hope some other members post their experiences. It would really be helpful if anyone actually used the Echo Indigo with AKG K501, but all comments are helpful. (Interesting - "pf" is my real initials -- Romanee is just one of my favorite wine appelations.)

 

[Super-Gonzo]

Romanee,

I've posted a couple times to questions regarding the echo indigo, you might try doing a bit more searching.

I use my echo indigo with a windows based laptop and Etymotic ER-4P's. I really enjoy the sound it produces, very clean, and no problems with hum, static or hard drive noise that many laptop solutions suffer from.

I bought my indigo when it was first released almost 2 (?) years ago, and I've never regreted the purchase. In fact, come to think of it, I've never heard an owner of an indigo ever complain about it.

 

[fguo79]

Is it possible for Echo Indigo possible to be used on a laptop with Linux OS?

 

[Budley007]

I've owned the Indigo for about 8 months now. It works well with my SR225s. It integrates flawlessly with my laptops onboard sound and there have been no problems. I like the "hot-swappable" function. I plan on attaching a prehead amp and seeing if I can get a good sound with harder-to-drive cans as soon as it arrives. My DT531s don't get enough power with the Indigo alone, so be forewarned if you have similar headphones.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Another extremely satisfied Echo Indigo user here -- you won't be disappointed

 

[bubbagump]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romanee thomaspf - Thanks for the reply! I hope some other members post their experiences. It would really be helpful if anyone actually used the Echo Indigo with AKG K501, but all comments are helpful. (Interesting - "pf" is my real initials -- Romanee is just one of my favorite wine appelations.)

i do. Love the card on laptops and havent heard anything better in terms of sound cards on PC laptops. Just know that it will tied up both your PCMCIA slots
in case you are using one currently.

 

[Romanee]

[size=medium]Thanks for all the replies![/size]

[size=small]Budley007[/size] -- As I suspected. Since I like AKG K501, I pretty much expected they'd be hard to drive with the Echo alone. I'll be interested to find out if the Xin Supermono will be a good (portable) match. Seeing that you list the I/O model, would you definitely recommend that over the standard (cheaper) version?

[size=small]bubbagump[/size] -- I'm not using any PCMCIA cards yet, so no problem.

For those who had posted comments elsewhere, sorry I missed them. I tried looking thoroughly, but I was searching late-late-late-late-late at night . . . maybe not the best time for research. After 2-3 dozen pages my brain faded.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

If you want to use it with an amp, the I/O would be best since it give you a line-out.

 

[lan]

B&H is only open next Monday-Thursday since this weekend and next are Jewish holidays. You could get one of the Echo cards on one those open days and bring in your powerbook to the qualia meet and try it on my SuperDual and Jahn's SR71. I could also bring in my Sonica with new capacitors. But maybe you don't really want something like a sonica since it's another wire and box? The only advantage I'd see with a Sonica is you can put better capacitors in it so it may potentially sound better. Mine doesn't have new caps on the analog section at this moment. I guess I could pop some on for you to try if you really wanted to hear it. I'll have to do that soon to allow it to burn in so let me know.

 

[Budley007]

No, I don't recommend the IO over any of the other models. My reason for picking up the IO was for recording purposes. Unless you need this, save your money. There's no difference in quality in any of the models. The higher price is for the extra inputs and outputs. Nothing more.

I'll let you know how my Indigo>amp experience turns out. Another poster tried an SR-71 with the Indigo and encountered a higher level of hiss than normal. I'm hoping my Prehead is a little more flexible. Which, BTW, just got here about 5 minutes after my last post.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budley007 No, I don't recommend the IO over any of the other models. My reason for picking up the IO was for recording purposes. Unless you need this, save your money. There's no difference in quality any any of the models. The higher price is for the extra inputs and outputs. Nothing more. I'll let you know how my Indigo>amp experience turns out. Another poster tried an SR-71 with the Indigo and encountered a higher level of hiss than normal. I'm hoping my Prehead is a little more flexible. Which, BTW, just got here about 5 minutes after my last post.

So I would have good results using an SR-71 fed from the headphone jack?

 

[NKT]

Like others on this forum I have been using the Echo Indigo out of my Powerbook, into some Ety 4p's. It's really a minimal-compromise highly portable hi-fi headphone setup (wow that's a mouthful!). The only thing is that the Echo will accelerate your battery usage quite significantly, from 15-25%, I've noticed. For example, I can normally get 4+ hours on my 15" powerbook 1ghz, but with the Indigo in there I struggly to get over 3. Good luck!

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NKT Like others on this forum I have been using the Echo Indigo out of my Powerbook, into some Ety 4p's. It's really a minimal-compromise highly portable hi-fi headphone setup (wow that's a mouthful!). The only thing is that the Echo will accelerate your battery usage quite significantly, from 15-25%, I've noticed. For example, I can normally get 4+ hours on my 15" powerbook 1ghz, but with the Indigo in there I struggly to get over 3. Good luck!

I think that is because the average CPU utilization is a good 10-30+% higher than normal with the Echo Indigo in place.