impressive 0404

[blomquist]

Hello Audiofanatics First, thanks to this forum, it brought me to the emu cards.... These cards really are the best you can get for that money, very impressive hardware! the 0404 shows some really interresting features -
*4 Layer PCB!!! I think this is the main reason why it measures so good! *opamps are feed directly from +-12V lines out of the PC PSU.... hey, even the cheapest cards have regulators for their opamps (ok, only 5V then)... they seem to have thought about it and it doesn´t hurt the sound quality (njm2068 don´t brag with PSRR!!);
*a very good clock source (put a dedicated LDO there and it gets even better)
*strange thing with the two unity gain opamps after the DAC... they really must had a good reason to do so.. have never seen a solution like that
*good drivers/applications... (installed onto a system without deinstalling the prodigy + sblive before - no problem yet)
*great "moddability"

seems like creative enables emu that uncompromising way of engineering 'cause they don´t have to think about money as smaller company´s..

ok, that´s my first impression - I hope I don´t kill the card by to excessive modding

 

[perdomot]

How would this card be for someone who:
Listens to music on Logitech Z-3 speakers
Has the PC digitally connected to a home stereo receiver
Imports audio via the Line In to convert to MP3?

My experience with the 710 has not proved a good one and I'm looking at other sound cards?

 

[Helter Skelter]

It would be very good for all of those things.

 

[Glassman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helter Skelter It would be very good for all of those things.

unfortunately not, for his Logitechs it's overkill, for his digitally connected home receiver it doesn't support AC3/DTS passthrough, it however would excell in recording..

 

[Glassman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blomquist Hello Audiofanatics First, thanks to this forum, it brought me to the emu cards.... These cards really are the best you can get for that money, very impressive hardware! the 0404 shows some really interresting features - *4 Layer PCB!!! I think this is the main reason why it measures so good!

definitely helps, but 4 layer PCB is pretty common these days, all the cards I had in my hands were on 4 layer PCB as far as I know..
Quote:

Originally Posted by blomquist *opamps are feed directly from +-12V lines out of the PC PSU.... hey, even the cheapest cards have regulators for their opamps (ok, only 5V then)... they seem to have thought about it and it doesn´t hurt the sound quality (njm2068 don´t brag with PSRR!!);

they are in fact fed from small RC filter with 4R7 and 10uF.. M-Audio always use +/- 12V and I think RME too as well as EgoSys and most every professional manufacturer.. M-Audio use RC filter with 10R and 470uF, Lynx use LC filter of 330mH and 1000uF, Echo also LC filter.. the only pro manufacturer utilising +/- 5V regs is probably Terratec.. it's really interesting that Creative always use regs.. I'm personally all for properly filtered +/-12V supply..
Quote:

Originally Posted by blomquist *a very good clock source (put a dedicated LDO there and it gets even better)

the oscillators are surprisingly powered from the main EMU10k2 chip and not from the voltage regulators, I still don't know what voltage are they fed with and if it's constant or varying.. anyway they are of very good quality, with 1010 having dedicated oscillators for all sampling frequencies and 0404 just for 48kHz with 44.1kHz being generated by PLL..
Quote:

Originally Posted by blomquist *strange thing with the two unity gain opamps after the DAC... they really must had a good reason to do so.. have never seen a solution like that

I think it was a moment decision shortly before production, these opamps doesn't even have ceramic bypass on their supply pins and their supply traces are routed wildly from the filter opamp near output terminals.. they decrease THD, but when bypassed the card sounds better..
Quote:

Originally Posted by blomquist *good drivers/applications... (installed onto a system without deinstalling the prodigy + sblive before - no problem yet)

this is arguable at least >

Quote:

Originally Posted by blomquist *great "moddability"

no doubt

 

[blomquist]

hmm, oscillator is fed with 3.3V; I´ve installed a separate 3V3 reg for it... cannot tell a real difference

will try to remove the unity gain´s - ouptut opamp is a ths4012 at the moment, wasn´t able to find the AD8620... but with this kind of opamp´s you´re already in a very high region. personally I do not think that anyone is really able to hear the difference between a AD8620 to a AD8066 - to much placebo out there...

replacing the ordinary cap´s in the digital domain with os-cons gave me good results

seperate reg´s for D/A and A/D wouldn´t be bad as they get the 3v3 out of the same reg that feeds the spartan - solution is restricted a little bit by the 4layers

ok, happy new year to you - cheers!

 

[Distroyed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glassman unfortunately not, for his Logitechs it's overkill, for his digitally connected home receiver it doesn't support AC3/DTS passthrough, it however would excell in recording..

It costs $100... I've always thought of overkill as spending a lot of money on a product that doesnt offer the performance to the rest of the setup based on the cost of the product in question. $100 isnt going to break anyone's piggie bank, relative to the cost of most other soundcards.

I say go for it; overkill at such a cheap cost rarely occurs!