New EMU 0204 USB 2.0 Audio Interface / Sound Card

I just picked up this new Audio Interface by EMU (and Creative Professional), and so far it seems to be pretty sweet, although I admit that I've only started toying around with it. I will be using it in conjunction with Reason for music production, but since I don't have my MIDI keyboard yet, it'll mostly serve at this point as a external sound card / headphone amp.

My question is this...would anyone find a review of this unit to be useful? Two weeks ago I would have just said screw it, but then I saw someone review the uDac-2 and with all the responses that it got I realized how many people care about audio for one purpose or another. If anybody would be interested in this thing or would find a review useful, then I will gladly write one up tonight. In the meantime, the specs on the unit are below.


Premium 24-bit/192kHz A/D and D/A converters * (A/D: 113dB SNR, D/A: 113dB SNR) delivering you a pristine recording/capture and playback experience
Ultra-low noise Mic/Hi-Z/Line preamplifiers with ground lift switches enable you to record microphones, keyboards or guitars directly into your computer delivering professional results (XLR, 1/4” TRS, and 1/8” 5V condenser mic input)
Ultra-low latency USB drivers offer accurate timing and playback of your recorded audio and expressive control of your software instruments
Independent headphone DAC path to enable separate playback and cueing for DJ applications
Hardware zero-latency direct monitoring (mono/stereo) allows you to record and overdub with no timing delays
Plug-and-play operation with hands-on control of all major functions like direct monitoring level, headphone level, and preamplifier gain to streamline your creative process
Driver compatibility with most popular audio/sequencer applications letting you work with your choice of tools - (Windows XP (SP3 or greater), Vista/x64, Windows 7/x64:ASIO2 and WDM; Macintosh OS X (10.5 or greater): Apple CoreAudio)

I/O Configuration:

Class-A Ultra-low Noise Mic/Hi-Z/Line Preamp XLR, 1/4" TRS and 1/8"* Inputs (113dB SNR)
Class-A Hi-Z/Line Preamp 1/4" Input (113dB SNR / 0.0008% THD)
Two 1/4" Outputs (117dB SNR / 0.0008% THD)
1/8" Stereo Speaker Output (117dB SNR)
Stereo Headphone Output which doubles as an assignable pair of auxiliary outputs (117dB SNR / 0.0008% THD)

 

wow surprised to heard e-mu here, i love 1616M more but why not e-mu make it a expresscard interface......

 

I wouldn't have been able to get it if it was expresscard, as the laptop I have on order doesn't have an expresscard slot. Which sucks.

 

hmm...agreed, expresscard is not used for most but is still useful for some like me. A Echo Indigo DJx is now lying in it.

Why not try a Firewire interface soundcard?

 

This one had pretty much all the features I needed for my music program at a pretty good price, so I snatched it up.

 

Now I have to figure out what is going on with this thing. When I have Reason open and I am using this audio interface via ASIO drivers, the sound skips and cuts out (albeit very briefly) when I do anything to my songs that uses the CPU (scrolling, opening new devices, etc). So, I looked at Task Manager, and my CPU is almost always between 75-100%, and my memory is all used up. I have a 2.4ghz C2D and 4GB ram with 32 bit Vista (so 3GB RAM really). I am guessing that the skipping and whatnot is due to the fact that my computer is being taxed to its limits, but that isn't an effect I expected. Oh well, I really want my new laptop to get here. On a side note, when I play a song and leave everything alone it doesn't skip, and the sound quality is incredible!