[dimi]

Right, got it now.

So, assuming the sampling rate stays the same - say 44.1KHz - for both sources, you can easily listen to CDs from S/PDIF or Foobar from USB.

OK, that's convenient enough, I guess. It has no input selector but expects the user to use either input at a time (or both if that makes any sense) and switches automatically. That's fine by me then.

Cheers !!!

 

[crystal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Right, got it now. So, assuming the sampling rate stays the same - say 44.1KHz - for both sources, you can easily listen to CDs from S/PDIF or Foobar from USB. OK, that's convenient enough, I guess. It has no input selector but expects the user to use either input at a time (or both if that makes any sense) and switches automatically. That's fine by me then. Cheers !!!

I've never used Foobar but I'll just echo sejarzo's finding as affirmative in regards to being able to hear both sources in my testing just now.

I'm able to listen to Windows Media Player and my CD player at the same time in "external sync" mode.

Strange....I never even attempted to do that before.....I'd always shut down my app (and sometimes the computer) before putting on an external CD.....oh well.....learn something new every day!

 

[Ross1]

I have a EMU 0404 USB, and I would just like people to be wary that the drivers still seem to be fairly poor for it. For instance while it worked fine before, when I installed a new copy of windows XP..... it ****s up good and proper. I have tried everything to get it to work.... but im pretty sure the software has some major problems.... I read a few forum posts with exactly the same problem as me too.

Right now Im going to try and get my old boot drive back, by putting in the old hard drive, and copying it over. I was going to do that originally but m new HD was showing up in windows either....... *sigh* So if that doesnt work I will look for another different copy of XP and try THAT.

But when it was working, it was pretty damn good. I mean, I notice a huge difference between the headphone amp on the 0404 USB and the headphone amp on my NAD stereo amp....

Also for the analog outputs at the back, I just got a couple of 1/4" to RCA adapters from Maplin. Were very cheap and seems to be okay quality. I dont really use many of the other ins/outs, so I cannot comment on those.

 

[dimi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crystal /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've never used Foobar but I'll just echo sejarzo's finding as affirmative in regards to being able to hear both sources in my testing just now. I'm able to listen to Windows Media Player and my CD player at the same time in "external sync" mode. Strange....I never even attempted to do that before.....I'd always shut down my app (and sometimes the computer) before putting on an external CD.....oh well.....learn something new every day!

He he.... You can listen to both sources and:
1. Hav 'em both playing pink noise to burn the headphones in faster

2. Play same music and get double bass

3. Play different music and enjoy two tracks at the same time (or go nuts)

Ahhh, well. I'll be joining the 0404 team as well, I think.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Ross1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif For instance while it worked fine before, when I installed a new copy of windows XP..... it ****s up good and proper.

Ross1, have you installed all WinXP usb bus drivers before installing the 0404 drivers? USB gets peculiar without all windows drivers. That may be the problem, hopefully. If so, you may save the time and trouble of another XP installation.

 

[slwiser]

Flexibility has a price.

The problem as I see it is that the manufacturers want to provide as extensive set of features as possible and all the exact stuff that we don't use just complicates things like what is being said above. This also occurs somewhat with my M-Audio USB Audiophile. My JRiver Media seems to be controlling this issue when I use it. But when I am not using JRiver the lock on my Lavry defaults to 48 kHz not 44.1 kHz. When JRiver comes in the lock changes back to what you would expect playing a CD at 44.1 kHz.

I know people like their EMU-0404s and M-Audios but a simple switch locking in at 44.1 kHz would make things so much easier.

All those extra features written into the drivers supplied by these manufacturer's are written to give things we never use when simply listening to CD and computer files. I would think any devices that use their drivers would similar issues. That is products built upon those types of devices.

One reason why I went ahead a purchased a simple HagUSB was just to get a limited device that will always provide CD quality sound. It is nice to have the right tool for the right job without having to always have to be reconfiguring things. This keeps my frustration level under control.

 

[crystal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slwiser /img/forum/go_quote.gif Flexibility has a price.

I'd agree with that...

Overall though, my personal experience has been very good with it and considering all of the things it is capable of, it's been very easy and convenient to use.

Cheers!

 

[sejarzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ross1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a EMU 0404 USB, and I would just like people to be wary that the drivers still seem to be fairly poor for it. For instance while it worked fine before, when I installed a new copy of windows XP..... it ****s up good and proper. I have tried everything to get it to work........

I have noticed some goofy behavior when interfacing the 0404 USB with either my notebook or desktop.

1. With the notebook....Compaq V6120, running XP Media Center SP2....if the 0404 is connected to a USB port and powered up before my boot-up/start-up is completely finished, I get the default appearance XP taskbar (the blue one, with green Start button) rather than the "Windows Classic" gray, the one selected in my default theme. Apps appear in Windows Classic-style windows--the only problem is the taskbar appearance! The problem does not occur if the 0404 power switch is left in the off position until my desired taskbar appears.

2. With the desktop.....Compaq SR1575NX (maybe, I'm away from home and don't recall the exact model, running just XPSP2) random characters in the Start menu and in names under the icons on my desktop are underlined, as are some in the search window in IE7. It doesn't happen 100% of the time, just a majority of the time. Again, if the 0404 is not powered up until the start-up is complete, I don't seem to have the problem.

I'm still trying to figure out why on my notebook, running Foobar 0.8.3, I can change the PPHS resampler rate on-the-fly and the 0404 resyncs immediately maybe 90% of the time; pitch and playback rate change the other 10% of the time. With the desktop and 0.8.3, I'd say that it's the other way around--it only resyncs properly about 10% of the time.

Yes, it does seem that the 0404 drivers are not bulletproof and apparently "don't mind their manners" when impacting XP settings.

On the other hand, my son had a Transit working very well on his Dell notebook, and after he fixed some other problems, the Transit now refuses to work the way it did previously. I think he told me that even though Foobar shows that the output is set for kernel streaming, the XP volume control still works....so apparently it isn't really kernel streaming after all, now. Prior to the changes, the volume control was bypassed.

Neither of us is an XP configuration expert (though he knows much more than I do!) but still.......almost any other peripheral device that I have used since the introduction of XP has worked almost flawlessly from the get-go, but audio devices seem to have minds of their own.

 

[sejarzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crystal /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've never used Foobar but I'll just echo sejarzo's finding as affirmative in regards to being able to hear both sources in my testing just now. I'm able to listen to Windows Media Player and my CD player at the same time in "external sync" mode. Strange....I never even attempted to do that before.....I'd always shut down my app (and sometimes the computer) before putting on an external CD.....oh well.....learn something new every day!

Maybe that is stranger than it first appears to be.

I thought that WMP would normally resample its output to 48 kHz, and the CD player would be sending its output at 44.1 kHz.

Or am I just more ignorant than what I thought when it comes to the workings of WMP??????

 

[Ross1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ross1, have you installed all WinXP usb bus drivers before installing the 0404 drivers? USB gets peculiar without all windows drivers. That may be the problem, hopefully. If so, you may save the time and trouble of another XP installation.

No luck with that im afraid, tried for my mobo, win XP, emailed EMU last week, still no word...... tried a new different install of XP..... didnt work either.....

but im not giving up! I still have a plan, which I shall try tomorrow. Cross your fingers and wish me luck, please!

Thanks for your helpful post too sejarzo, but sadly my problem is a lot more serious than that. It just starts crackling, distorting more and more until it becomes a complete mess.... I have no idea why it was working before and then not working now. However I am going to try and 'go back in time' to my old OS on my old hard drive, and see if I can work something out.

 

[dimi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif ............ Yes, it does seem that the 0404 drivers are not bulletproof and apparently "don't mind their manners" when impacting XP settings. ............

Hmmm, it seems that the 0404 drivers start up earlier than they should. You don't get any errors about your profile not fully loading or something so it may only affect desktop visuals. It shouldn't happen but it does and unfortunately is quite common. In Windows start-up, processes do not run in a specific order every time.

It is really prudent not to run any external devices before XP fully starts up. Now, if I have my Nokia N80 connected (via USB) when powering up (or resetting) the PC, my UPS monitor application crashes, as well as my usb mouse does not come on about 30% of the time. You can run into same problems with internal devices also, especially the ones with badly written drivers that access the PCI bus, such as TV cards.

As for the 0404, I really did not expect that from a company that markets PC soundcards for decades. One could expect any driver problems would have been resolved by now.

Driver problems aside, the 0404 USB is still a great card, right? The headphone amplifier and DAC in it are decent enough to warranty an upgrade from the built-in motherboard sound. That is using non-exotic cans like HD280, DT770 (80 or 250 ohms), K271s, etc.

 

[crystal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe that is stranger than it first appears to be. I thought that WMP would normally resample its output to 48 kHz, and the CD player would be sending its output at 44.1 kHz. Or am I just more ignorant than what I thought when it comes to the workings of WMP??????

Looks like it's 44.1 kHz to me....unless I'm barking up the wrong tree....

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms790027.aspx

 

[sejarzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Driver problems aside, the 0404 USB is still a great card, right? The headphone amplifier and DAC in it are decent enough to warranty an upgrade from the built-in motherboard sound. That is using non-exotic cans like HD280, DT770 (80 or 250 ohms), K271s, etc.

Not only decent, but remarkable!

{EAC>FLAC>Foobar 0.8.3>0404 USB headamp>HD600's} or alternatively, {EAC>FLAC>Foobar 0.8.3>0404 USB main out>home PIMETA>HD600's} reveal so much more detail and separation between instruments versus {the original CD's>Musical Fidelity CD-Pre24 preamp outputs direct>HD600's} or {the original CD's>Musical Fidelity CD-Pre24 tape out>home PIMETA>HD600's} that it is sick. It is definitely not just a hyped upper mid response that I hear (what makes one think a new source is more detailed at first, but then results in fatigue.) It's a serious increase in detail, spatial info, soundstage, but without getting unnaturally edgy (at least on well-recorded material.)

(Side note: The PIMETA in question is a pretty well maxed unit--class A biased opamps, stacked buffers--and it definitely is more revealing than my recently departed Millett.)

I am the third owner of that MF piece, originally a $3k unit with a pretty well respected upsampling DAC..........to be honest, I didn't pay nearly $3k for it (more like $1k via A'gon), but as I put it in another post, think about it: that piece was well reviewed in Stereophile (umm, but what MF pieces have been trashed in Stereophile, yeah, I can hear that already!) and now anyone with a notebook and $175 or so to spend on the 0404, along with EAC and Foobar at zero cost, has a mobile solution that beats the MF, hands down.

Try lugging around a 34 lb CD player/preamp combo as a "mobile solution"!

One thing to remember, the headamp in the 0404 is powered by the 5 VDC wallwart, so it doesn't drive the HD600's to extreme volume....but certainly a listenable volume, no doubt! I am due to receive a pair of K601's next weekend and will report my impressions when appropriate (thanks to Skylab!)

 

[Abouna]

I was just about to start a thread for this question but might was well try here first.

What is the basis for picking the 0404 over the 0202, espcially if it's just for the DAC/AMP combo (I won't be using all the other functionality, certainly not anything MIDI!).

 

[crystal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr. John /img/forum/go_quote.gif I was just about to start a thread for this question but might was well try here first. What is the basis for picking the 0404 over the 0202, espcially if it's just for the DAC/AMP combo (I won't be using all the other functionality, certainly not anything MIDI!).

The 0404 has a (top of the line AKM) different DAC than the 0202

 

[y0-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmmm, it seems that the 0404 drivers start up earlier than they should. You don't get any errors about your profile not fully loading or something so it may only affect desktop visuals. It shouldn't happen but it does and unfortunately is quite common. In Windows start-up, processes do not run in a specific order every time. It is really prudent not to run any external devices before XP fully starts up. Now, if I have my Nokia N80 connected (via USB) when powering up (or resetting) the PC, my UPS monitor application crashes, as well as my usb mouse does not come on about 30% of the time. You can run into same problems with internal devices also, especially the ones with badly written drivers that access the PCI bus, such as TV cards. As for the 0404, I really did not expect that from a company that markets PC soundcards for decades. One could expect any driver problems would have been resolved by now. Driver problems aside, the 0404 USB is still a great card, right? The headphone amplifier and DAC in it are decent enough to warranty an upgrade from the built-in motherboard sound. That is using non-exotic cans like HD280, DT770 (80 or 250 ohms), K271s, etc.

I have all the correct drivers installed on my laptop. If I have the 0404 USB connected and powered up before I start my laptop, right after windows loads, it crashes every time. If I just wait till windows is fully loaded and then turn on the 0404 USB, everything works fine. Annoying but not a big deal I guess.