Hi Gavin
What about Linux support?
Cheers
Geoff

Gavin Stephens wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> Just giving some heads up on a few cards on Trade Me that came up in my
> search results today, a couple of Antex LX-44's for Windows. There's a few
> professional cards popping up now second hand. They are PCI.
>
> http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=228932766
> http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=228880964
>
> I personally own an LX44 and vouch for how good a card they are. They're
> only PCM cards (no fancy hardware MPEG decoding etc...) however they have
> four balanced analogue outs (either 2 stereo or 4 mono, or 1 stereo and 2
> mono... assignable) and four balanced analogue ins, with four virtual
> 'stereo' wave devices in Windows that can be mapped to any physical output
> arrangement.
>
> The noise floor on them is around -84dB @ 40Hz using unbalanced on the input
> and not terminated (on mine anyway). Above 100Hz better than -96dB in cool
> edit on a 16-bit 44,100 sample (the D/A's are 20-bit).
>
> The LX44's do up to +24/26dBu which is why I have one for playback. I use
> the SMPTE reference of -20dBFS for 0VU (@+4dBu) which gives me a further
> 20dB of room on my PC's for peaks over 0VU on true VU meters.
>
> I also tested a Terratec Phase 22 (I've seen a couple for under $60 the last
> fortnight) to see what those German cards are like. They have balanced TRS
> in and outs and don't go above -96dB noise in my machine in 16-bit mode
> until below 20Hz(ish). The drawback with the Terratec is that the input and
> output is still not a professional level, they're +8/9dBu (2.2vrms) out with
> reference to 0dBFS, but okay for software audio processing to a TX where 0
> or +4dBu is the limit. The Terratecs have multiple crystals on-board aswell
> including 22KHz so you get true 44,100Hz rec/playback not dithered 48Khz
> playback like cards with 24KHz cyrstals. You can sync multiple cards in a PC
> to one clock and their output is very clean and worth the buy if you're
> looking for a entry semi-pro card. There's a few around now and then on
> Trade Me.
>
> Those are just my experiences with those cards. I thought seeing more LX44's
> come up on Trade Me someone else might be interested.
>
> Anyone else got anything to share about sound cards they use or tested?
>
> Cheers,
> Gavin.
>
>
>