I sure do wish ESI/Audiotrak DirectWire 3.0 worked with other products.
Please read the manufacturers specifications on these MAYA, ESI,
Audiotrak cards, and in particular, please pay close attention to the
noise floor specs. This is usually given in the "A/D SNR" or "A/D
dynamic range" and is measured in dBA usually.
The Delta 44, as specified on the M-Audio web site, measures 99 dBA.
The Maya products, even their latest ones are 90 dBA. The Lynx L22 and
the Audiophile 192 are well over 100 dBA but neither has sufficient
inputs and outputs for our current working model. The ESI "Juli" that
Riho likes has seriously good dynamic range if it meets their claims of
112 dB. It would be good if Riho could measure the loopback performance
with RightMark Audio Analyzer (5.5 is now out) and let us know the
results with this card.
http://audio.rightmark.org/index_new.shtml
For those who are just before giving up on a USB solution for your
laptop, and will consider using 16 bit cards, the MAYA44 USB has better
specs than the Extigy or the MP3+.
Here is a block diagram of its workings:
http://www.audiotrak.net/images/maya44usb_bd1.gif
Its A/D SNR is 86 dBA and this is because of 18 bit parts.
I have no experience with Maya, Audiotrak, etc. but the products look
interesting and if they continue to improve the noise floor, we should
get something reasonable from them. The Juli's specs look really good
if they are hold up under measurement. It will be good for all
soundcard program modes using the DirectWire 3.0 software.
Bob
N4HY
