Please suggest an External soundcard for speaker measurements

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I need an external soundcard dedicated for speaker measurement duty(with Speaker Workshop).
Can be USB or Firewire or Ethernet or whatever - no particular preference here.
What are people using successfully ? Any particular ones to stay away from ?
Thanks.
 
The Audigy 2 ZS notebook is listed at the Praxis site. I've been using it with SoundEasy, and the impulse does not stay rock steady. I haven't tried it with Speaker Workshop, but I could give it a try next time I make some runs. Maybe the problem is running in the 96KHz mode which is 24bit only.

Another option is the Echo Indigo i/o. But the outer part is thick an may not be able to get fully plugged in. One reason I have not tried it.

Bear in mind that cards running at 96KHz normally only allows you to run it in 24bit mode. So I don't know how Speaker Workshop will respond to this. Otherwise, the TRANSIT is really the most price/performance efficient in 16bit 48KHz mod.
 
yes pcmcia is certainly an option since this is for a laptop anyway.

I was eyeing the Audigy 2 NX. Wonder how well that would work.

I have one. It is noisy and it shows up in the measurements and not consistently, which is even worse! I have been using it with ETF, Speaker Worshop has too steep a learning curve for me.

I have switched to the Creative SoundBlaster MP3 USB (16bit , 48K) which is what ETF acoustics suggests. No more problems.

Take a look at their website for a view on soundcard requirements for speaker measurement http://www.acoustisoft.com/NewUser.html

Best
Giulio
 
Did you mean the new Audigy 2 "NX" ?

Speaker Workshop seems to be working very well for me so far. No problems there.

I mean the PCMCIA version not USB. As soonsg also reports above, the impulse is not [consistently] steady and I put it down to noise on the card DC supply. I have no experience with the USB version. I would be interested if your findings are different.

Best
Giulio
 
oh ok. I think we got talking about two different cards.
You and soongsc are referring to ZS
and I was asking about NX

on a sidenote my turtle beach santa cruz had a jumping pulse, until I set the latency (in SW) to 0. Then the pulse became rock steady. Terrific internal card for measurements. Now I need something for the laptop...
 
percy said:
oh ok. I think we got talking about two different cards.
You and soongsc are referring to ZS
and I was asking about NX

on a sidenote my turtle beach santa cruz had a jumping pulse, until I set the latency (in SW) to 0. Then the pulse became rock steady. Terrific internal card for measurements. Now I need something for the laptop...

I think there was some talk about the NX quite some time ago at the RMAA site. Have you checked there? I vaguely remember it had something to do with ground loops and specific setting were necessary.
 
By the way, SpeakerWorkshop only takes 16bit cards. So the Echo Indigo may not work. I'm still playing around with it to see what happens.

Most cards with 96KHz sampling capability only work that way in 24bit mode. This is something wo watch out for as well. If anyone finds a card that runs 16bit, but also 96KHz or higher at the same time please let us know.
 
well , having used a bunch of soundcards since 13 years, i think i can say that any of soundblaster offering is not suited for pro use

their drivers are coded with no competence, they hog cpu, and handle asio very badly.

what is weird is that the emu cards (expensive) , wich is now a subdivision of SB are among the best soundcards ever, sound-quality wise, and certainly the best at their prices (emu 1616 and 1616M)

in the cheaper department, almost anything by M-audio (transit, audiophile, etc) edirol, echo, tascam, is very good, but the best choice if you don't need preamps is certainly the EMU 0202 USB.

if you need preamps and phantom, M-AUDIO MOBILE PRE USB is a good choice, but there are way better options for more money, the emu i formentionned for example

one only word, you almost can't do a mistake, except going for soundblaster.

i make electronic music, had several soundcards, performed THD and stability test on them because i worked in a music shop, and also did some measurements with one or two of them, so you can believe my word on that
 
You are all saying that SB is bad, but look at it's price. In Poland M-Audio Transit is about two times more expensive than SB Live External.

At the moment I'm looking for a sound card for my laptop, but EMU 202 is certainly too expensive for me. It's two times more expensive than the M-Audio.

What can you recommend me? Something cheaper than M-Audio transit, still good, and usable? Now I have an integrated "Conexant High Definition Audio" sound card. The problem with it is that it doesn't have constant latency. It start measuring once after 5ms, once after 10..


Thanks for help, waiting for replies. :)
 
This thread was started in 2006 but it is now 2008!

Does anybody have an updated (URL link) list of the latest soundcards that work with Speaker Workshop?

It seems that in the computer market everyone is selling the Creative SoundBlaster cards. I bought an OEM version of it and the signal clips at 5k! Unfortunately, I destroyed my M-Audio Transit and still have not obtained the acoustic measurement.
 
HiFiNutNut said:
This thread was started in 2006 but it is now 2008!

Does anybody have an updated (URL link) list of the latest soundcards that work with Speaker Workshop?

It seems that in the computer market everyone is selling the Creative SoundBlaster cards. I bought an OEM version of it and the signal clips at 5k! Unfortunately, I destroyed my M-Audio Transit and still have not obtained the acoustic measurement.
What currency of 5K?:eek:
The best way to protect the cards is to make the appropiate jig to scale the signal down to that cards will not be damaged.
 
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