[Mr Iriver]

I have been recording using two separate soundcards. One I have no problems with, but the other one is the one I want to change. It is the one built into the motherboard, and recording stuff through it, comes out noisy and hissy.

SO im looking for an interface with a really quiet input. Quiet as far as noise and hiss that is.

So far the 0202, is catcing my eye with its nice price, but which is the best for recording. I just want a sound that inputs pristinely.

ALSO very important is low latency. Some products record the sounds a few milliseconds after i play the sounds.

BY THE WAY would i be able to get the low hiss and noise with the pci versions of the emu cards. Are they equivalent for recording.

 

[Mr Iriver]

Can nobody help? Cmon, I know you guys at headfi no your stuff.

I heard the EMU 0202 does not like low impedance headphones by the way.

Is that true, cause I'll be using my shure Se530s.

 

[sejarzo]

There is no "PCI equivalent" to the 0404 USB or the 0202 USB. For some reason, E-MU decided that the numeric portion of the model number simply means the number of ins/outs available.

The 0404 PCI and 0404 USB have entirely different ADC's and DAC's, and the 0404 PCI has only line-level inputs, no mic pres on board.

How many mic inputs do you need? If you need two, and you want mic pres on board whatever you buy, you must go with the 0404 USB.

I'm just not an IEM guy, so I've never tried my 0404 USB with such phones. All I can say is that the built-in headamp is marginal for HD600's, but can drive HD280's to a much higher volume. But I think your concern is that the headamp isn't optimized for very lo-Z, very high sensitivity IEM's, right, rather than just lo-Z phones?

Sure, the internal headamp is a Class A design, but I presume that it is included more for direct monitoring than seriously high quality playback.

 

[Mr Iriver]

Thanks for the help.

Well, If the sound is not the greatest for playback, it wont bother me so much as long as the recording is good.

I want to have 1mic, and 1 input for my guitar. I have a guitar synth so that's all i need. I do everything even the percussion with it a lot of the time.

So for that is there a worthwhile difference between the EMU 0202 and the 0404.

 

[Ahriman4891]

AFAIK 0202 usb has no phantom power on mic/guitar inputs. USB simply does not provide enough juice for that. 0404 has a separate PSU and can provide up to 65 dB gain on the inputs, even though E-MU does not recommend going above 60 dB.