m-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card or Creative X-Fi ?

[Defenestration]

I didn't realise Creative had now implemented ASIO2.0 support in their 'entertainment' cards - it must've come with just the latest versions. I'd thought they'd reserved that for their E-MU range which is the Creative 'audiophile' card.
I am active on the Cakewalk SONAR forum and there are constantly posters complaining at the quality of the drivers on their Creative cards. Since Creative have a vested interest in selling their EM-U range to the music maker I suspect this is a deliberate ploy so that people who believe their X-Fi 'gaming card' is suitable for music making have to go out and buy another card when they realise their ASIO implemntation is poor. I don't think WDM drivers are supported by the X-FI cards. WDM is more versatile than ASIO insofar as latency can normally be adjusted via a slider from within the host sequencer as opposed to having to open the soundcard software and switch the buffer sizes (which I don't believe is possible within the Creative ASIO implementation). Buffer size adjustment is critical. One needs low buffer sizes (ie low latency) when recording but can increase the buffers on mixdown to prevent sample overload and therefore dropouts.

I think I'll give the X-Fi cards a miss then due to the driver problems people are complaining about on the Cakewalk forum.

Have you heard/read any positive/negative comments on the X-Meridian from musicians ?

[Gibbo]

Have you heard/read any positive/negative comments on the X-Meridian from musicians ?

tbh I've never heard of it!!

Sorry

[Defenestration]

No problems. You've been very helpful.

The X-Meridian has only been out a few months, which makes me think the drivers might not be as reliable as they could be.

I'm off to do some more research.

[Gibbo]

If I got the m-audio, could I also still use the on-board 7.1 when I wanted surround sound ?

Yes it's quite easy to switch between them.
It's possible to set the onboard 7.1 as default in Control Panel and tell your sequencer to always use the 2496. Of course you'd need 2 independent amplifiers and speaker setups (one for each set of outputs) unless everyhting was routed to a multi in multi out mixer.
I have used this setup myself but these days i have unloaded all the onboard drivers and disabled the onboard sound and just use the stereo card as my PC is dedicated to music making. If I want surround (DVD etc) I watch on my TV/home theatre system :

[Zak33]

- M-AUDIO Revolution 5.1

for the win.

have one...wont lose it. Its uber. Also bloody good in games, but only suports EAX and EAX2.

Superb stereo, awesome drivers (i mean AWESOME) easy to use, and devastatingly better than anything I've ever used.

Supports Aureal A3d too,much better 3d sounds from a stereo or headphones.

Get it.

It rocks..and if you hate it, it will always sell , cos they're quite rare.

[Gibbo]

for the win.

have one...wont lose it. Its uber. Also bloody good in games, but only suports EAX and EAX2.

Superb stereo, awesome drivers (i mean AWESOME) easy to use, and devastatingly better than anything I've ever used.

Supports Aureal A3d too,much better 3d sounds from a stereo or headphones.

Get it.

It rocks..and if you hate it, it will always sell , cos they're quite rare.

Loses insofar as no MIDI I/O so limited to software instruments for music making.