So in our opinion only EMU 1212M (with converters of a higher level) can be a serious competitor to the undoubtedly successful in price/quality this fact, many users of middle end sound sections will quite possibly prefer because this ESI card is easier to control, it does not have problems with the MME/WDM interface support in high formats, it has a smoother frequency response of line outs, and it offers several useful proprietary features, which will be described later. According to our measurements (using the same reference sound card) is even better than the more expensive ESI Waveterminal 192Õ, which has better (according to the specification) ADCs. In general, it should be noted that in the price range up to $200 demonstrates better DAC/ADC quality in comparison with similar old cards based on ENVY24 – various M-Audio Audiophile 2496, Echo MIA, etc. But hi-end audio PC users (RCA jacks are a curtsy to them), who use their computers solely for high quality playback and who do not care about ADC, have a reason to pause – is the DAC comparable with the level of the rest of the sound playback section? If the rest of the sound section is much more expensive than the card (approximately over $600), so that the bottleneck is in the DAC quality as well, then they should pay attention to the mastering level sound cards. Perhaps, as it was with Waveterminal 192X, the engineers considered the digitization quality (ADC) to be more important in home/project studio than the slightly reduced quality of signal monitoring, other things being equal.
Though DAC and ADC are of the same class in this sound card, ADCs are still a tad better than DACs. ESI converters: AKM 4358 DAC and AKM 5385A ADC
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