U46DJ - Worth it?

[OverDrive]

I've just ordered my Ms Pinky vinyl and software, and I'm now on the look out for a new sound device.

Word on this board seems to be for either the Maya 44 USB or the U46DJ. Although many people seem to be having issues with the U46DJ making me question whether it's worth it or not.

How bad is the latency on a USB sound card? It seems to me that a USB interface would have a moderate to high latency level and I wonder if a miniPC w/ a high end PCI sound card would preform better (I already have a shuttle PC).



For extremely low latency - What do people recommend?

[dlpinkstah]

In spite of all the troubles with it, I still vouch for the U46DJ. I use it almost every day under OSX and it works fine.



I've seen that E-Mu has released several new USB 2.0 audio converters. They don't feature built-in phono preamps, but they look like they have plenty of other attractive features.



http://www.emu.com/support/files/storag ... erfaces.pd



And of course there's always the new M-Audio Conectiv:



http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/C ... -main.html



Looks like it could be interesting. And there's a story to tell.... but not yet



For now I'd say sure, why not just go with the U46DJ. It's a fine deal for the money, except for that bad batch which apparently got sold in Europe... still a mystery to me.

[OverDrive]

Thanks for the advice!



I ended up finding a great deal on an M-Audio FireWire Audiophile, and since my turntables have both spdif digital out and builtin phono preamps, the Audiophile should do fine. I'll post a review of it when I get my setup working.

[dlpinkstah]

Ms Pinky loves turntables with built-in phono preamps and/or SPDIF!!

[timmm]

i still have my crappy u46dj. does ms pinky work fine with the firewire audiophile? i found it at thomann for 200 euros - but does it really have enough inputs and outputs?





if i bought it, would i still need phono preamps? i got the vestax pdx2000 with ortofon qbert.

[dlpinkstah]

If you're contemplating buying an interface from M-Audio, I would really recommend waiting until the Conectiv comes out. Unfortunately, I don't know the exact date it will be available in stores, but it's coming pretty soon.



http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=pro ... 0afe495ad1

[Dan]

just to throw my 2 cents about the U46DJ into the ring; For the money, it's a good soundcard. It does exactly as it says on the tin, and works very well with Ms. Pinky. My one gripe is that the phono-preamps, even at their lowest levels, can still be a bit too loud, making recording vinyl difficult.



Windows XP experience:

A problem a lot of people are having is hearing the timecoded vinyl buzz. I had this problem, and noticed that my soundcard was one of the new (bad) batch (serial no. starting with ESJ060). This was fixed as soon as I installed the latest driver 1.16. This new batch NEEDS the 1.16 driver to work. I've posted the driver I received by email yesterday from ESI up here:



(Note: I've not personally tested this file, I used one found on their forum but I can't find it again to link to. I'd appreciate if someone could verify that this is virus-free / works etc. for other users.)

http://dan.unworkable.org/_upload/insta ... 60307).zip



Once that's installed, mess around with the settings yourself, make sure to mute the two monitor channels (they act as audio-thru). Ms. Pinky should then work fine.



Note: Asio4All isn't a driver itself!! (It's more of a wrapper I think?) It still needs the above driver to be installed first to be of any use. The original driver never worked properly for me with Asio4All. But once you're all up-to-date, definitely use Asio4All to get low latencies.



OSX experience:

The new batch of soundcards give the exact same problem as described above, but as OSX is not officially supported by ESI, they're not going to do anything about it. I have found a hammy workaround though involving aggregating your internal soundcard which works well, I'll post up a more in-depth guide soon!



Hope this helps!

[m3tr1k]

Interesting observation that I think a lot of people (including myself) overlooked about the Asio4All deal. More research revealed this page, which may be useful for us U46DJ users: http://tippach.business.t-online.de/asio4all/intro.html



Basically confirms that Asio4All DOES NOT replace existing drivers. Perhaps this is where I messed up. I'll try it later when I get home from work



So Dan, Ive confirmed at least that the file you posted is virus free (symantec's 8.11.2006 rev 19 virus definition), but I can't test it because I've got an ESJ-050. Anyone else?



I'll give the Asio4All + ESI 1.14 a try.

Thanks for the advice!



-M3tr1k

[Dan]

So Dan, Ive confirmed at least that the file you posted is virus free (symantec's 8.11.2006 rev 19 virus definition), but I can't test it because I've got an ESJ-050. Anyone else?

-M3tr1k

Cheers for the confirmation! Good luck with the setup!

[shortfacedbear]

nice one dan..

i'd almost given up on the whole thing and started looking for another way to perform live..



installed the new driver and everything works fine, almost undetectable latency now, and i can skratch to my hearts content.



so thanks..