[mattdp]

I'm currently living on a desktop with crappy internal sound. However, I will be moving to a laptop in a few months (moving to college).

While I no longer have to put up with the crappy output (switched to an external DAC fed by 44.1/24 or 48/24), I'm still using the internal input to rip records (via Pioneer PL-518/Audio Technica AT-440MLa). The original record will have "space," everything will sound "separate" and there's a very natural sense of "timing." When I play back the digital recording, it's a little colored, there's no natural "space" and all the instruments sound like their on top of each other.

Long story short... I want to an external interface that has a some relatively low jitter converters and can run at 96/24 or even 192/24. I also want to be able to get 192/24 out of the computer. I'd like to pull said interface apart, upgrade the caps and opamps.
 

What are people having success with? Is there anything in the $100 price range that would fit the bill? I'd get something used, do mods or whatever it would take. Ideally, I'd get an apogee but I don't have that kind of money.​

 

[Uri Cohen]

Cost up to $150 with Async USB 24/192 support:  Musiland Monitor 02 US. 

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Cost up to $150 with Async USB 24/192 support:  Musiland Monitor 02 US. 

+1, USB 24/96+ support for cheap is fairly hard to find.

 

[EphemeralHope]

I'd recommend the musiland 02 also - the other big one on this forum is the m2tech hiface - but that would go into a DAC which would cost you a few hundred extra bucks while the musiland 02 is standstill with a headphone out and RCA out... really neat package for so cheap i suppose.

 

[slashclee]

The E-MU 0202 is decent, not amazing, but surprisingly good for under $100 - Amazon has it for $94 right now. It does 192/24, and IIRC it's a Cirrus Logic CS4392 chip inside.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

If you want 24/96 and 24/192 for relatively cheap look at new/used pro-audio home studio style interfaces.
 
For 24/192 you need custom drivers.  The interface will only be as useful as the drivers are capable and available.  If the company decides to stop supporting or updating the drivers when the next OS version comes out you're stuck. 
 
The good news though is that you'll get real ASIO drivers and WASAPI will also work.

 

[mattdp]

The E-MU 0202 looks interesting.
 
I did a little googling. Looks like at least one person has upgraded caps and opamps with good results. Anyone else tried this?
 
How would it drive my Grado SR-60s?
 
Edit: I'm currently on Windows XP but will be running on a Windows 7 machine in a few months. Will I be able to do 192/24/what drivers do I need to accomplish such a feat?

 

[Hybrys]

See if you can find an EMU 0404USB instead, I think it's modded a little more often (if you're into that), and you might be able to find a used unit for pretty cheap, as it's more popular.
 
Looks like the EMU 0404 works fine on Win7 using Vista drivers.  I remember there being a problem a while back, where you had to disable power-saving functions (AMD Cool'n'Quiet and Intel SpeedStep) due to some power problems, but that's not a huge deal anyway.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Check the manufacturer web sites for info on what drivers they have available and whether they currently have Windows 7 compatible drivers.
 
Currently E-MU does not have Windows 7 drivers available for the 0202 USB or 0404 USB interfaces.  They have beta drivers available for the PCI card interfaces, but nothing for the USB interfaces.  I didn't see any announcement about when they expect to have Windows 7 drivers available. 

 

[ramicio]

The drivers I saw are for XP and Vista, both 32 and 64 bit versions, so seeing as how they have Vista support the drivers should work with Windows 7.

 

[Mr. B]

I'm using an E-MU 0404 via USB under Windows 7 with no problems.  I think you'd have to buy used to get one in the $100 range though... I got mine on ebay for $90.

 

[mattdp]

I dunno how this thread somehow became active after 6 months, but oh well..
 
I settled on a Phonic Firefly 302 USB. I think I got it for $129 or $119 on J & R back in August.
 
This thing can run (in 24 bit) at 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192. It's got a decent headphone out (with volume control) and RCA line outputs. I also has RCA line inputs (with independent level controls), an XLR mic input with +48V phantom power, MIDI I/O and coaxial S/PDIF I/O.
 
Noise on the output very low (you wouldn't hear it on headphones at all). Same with the input (looking at a spectrograph, most is in the ultrasonic region). Sound character is good. I always run at 176.4 or 192. While digital shouldn't be converted to a non-multiple (ideally), I can't tell the difference between a CD upconverted to 176.4 or 192.
 
While I'm still going to pull this thing apart and try and tweak every single thing I can, the sound is already detailed and in proportion. CDs sound good while 24/96 and 24/192 have that "the band is performing in front of you" feel. My LP rips retain about 95% of the awesome factor of the original. It's that 5% I'm gonna work on.
 
The drivers work just great on my Windows 7 machine. Non-intrusive and it's really easy to change the sample rate! They've never used much CPU, had problems or crashed the machine. Recording in Reaper works great. I had to adjust the buffer settings a bit to get 192KHZ files to play right. Audacity doesn't like 192KHZ recording (but it will edit 192 files).
 
I highly recommend this!

 

[lordsegan]

I absolutely vote for the Musiland Monitor 02 US.
 
It is amazing for the price.

 

[ramicio]

So what actually supports 24/192 over USB?  The Monitor 02 Us doesn't have volume control.  A lot of other nice DACs like the Zero don't support 24/192 over USB.  I was seriously looking at getting a used 0404 USB.  How good is the sound quality with say HD 650s?  Do the ASIO drivers allow 24/192?

 

[Ektalog]

I have both the Musiland Monitor 02 US and the E-mu 0404 USB. The Musiland beats the E-mu 0404USB for music at any rate.
 
I do keep the E-mu 0404 USB hooked up for its microphone capabilities.  I even switch it to music playback every now and then for a reality check. It was not really built for audiophile music playback but does it rather well...just not up to current standards. Perhaps a modded unit might do better than the Musiland. The E-mu drivers are resource-intensive but on Win 7 they are behaving better than before.

The Musiland drivers and interface keep being updated. They tend to behave well and are no resource hogs. If a revision is bad, going back and staying on the previous is no big deal. Their "precision mode" makes a very positive difference.

Both drivers sets co-exist peacefully in my Win 7 box. I can switch from one to the other on the fly. I can also activate one via ASIO and the other via WASAPI simultaneously.
 
The Musiland delivers great sound plus amazing imaging, VERY impressive on speakers. For $130 it is a bargain. Its 2 headphone outputs have adequate power for all that I have tried... but I have not had great cans for a while.
 
The Musiland does have volume control on its computer interface. The E-mu has it on the external box.
 
I use cPlay and Foobar2k at 24/192 for playback. With cPlay, the differences between these 2 become even more obvious.