M-Audio Firewire Audiophile 2496 Audio Interface

Compact, FireWire-compatible audio/MIDI interface that takes the legacy of M-Audio?s award-winning Audiophile line to the next level.

This product is no longer available at zZounds.

Shop our website for related products:

(In most cases, a product is unavailable because it has been discontinued by its manufacturer.)

customer reviews

Rate and Review This Product:

57 People rated this product : * * * * * * * * * * 7 out of 10

9 People wrote reviews

* * * * * * * * * * 5 out of 10

"it's great..when it works"

Feature:
it is a bit basic, but for the money it is ok,

Quality:
cheapo plastic knobs and cos they economised on having less knobs it takes a while to figure out what is going on with the channels etc software makes up for it tho

Value:
i didnt expect to have to replace this so i am disapointed with the value, if i had got thee years out of it then i would be happy

Sound:
for the money the sound quality is good enough, i get it very clean and no crackles or pops. after 6 months it has developed a problem tho, i get both stereo channels in the phones, which proves the signal is getting to the unit, but only one channel goes out to the monitors.

Ease of Use:
wire it up, good to go.

Support:
the support people were helpful eventually, but though i quite specifically oputlined the problem their first two opinions on what the problem was were utterly ridiculous and proved they werent listening

Overall:
i was quite happy till it went wrong, now i curse the damn thing daily.

Submitted: 6/27/2008

* * * * * * * * * * 3 out of 10

"3 native serious bugs in one box!"

Feature:
the main feature I noticed is the low standard design

Quality:
when you have got everything on the best possible PC guess what-I can't plug-in my MIDI board because it crashes every three minutes while I play MIDI! This is a crash from the box itself! It can't handle really fast MIDI signals.all the programs I tried while playing midi crash.I spent about 15 hours troubleshooting this bastard to make sure I knew all its quirks but then it has this new one which is completely stuck. Also-the drivers are awful, the last release was about two years ago, while troubleshooting it I found about five complaints of the same problem on lots of different forums, but when I mentioned this obvious problem to the guy he had never heard of it. I had to get turned down all the video acceleration for my graphics card to even make the volume sliders work from their soundcard mixing interface because it's written with a graphics overlay which is showy and completely dysfunctional and different from the traditional early audiophile native Windows-it's glittery trash I am very disappointed

Value:
disappointing

Sound:
high-quality but it cuts out, the direct sound drivers are written so that there is all kinds of interference from different parts of the computer that cut the sound out, but there is worse to come.

Ease of Use:
everything plugs in okay, except it comes with a warning of not plugging in powered FireWire lines without switching off the computer because you might fry your ports.

Support:
nice bloke,he told me to get an add-on card for my FireWire port because it only runs well with Texas instruments FireWire chips. basically if you buy it for anything slightly advanced involving advancer MIDI then you probably will send it back pretty fast if you are wise.

Overall:
is aboard might be okay for some kinds of straightforward use but it is dreadfully unstable and they have misleadingly named it audiophile, just done a single driver update and the driver has fundamental problems of stability. It doesn't have any crash recovery, it interferes with other directxthreads. It is absolutely pathetic

Submitted: 8/4/2007

Style of Music: everything except very cheesy pop

Read all reviews...

Additional Images:

Main
Main
Rear
Rear
Front View
Front View

30-Day 100% Satisfaction Guarantee Applies On This Item - Buy it, and if it isn't just right for you, return it!

About This Product!
Description
Docs
FireWire Audiophile is a compact, FireWire-compatible audio/MIDI interface that takes the legacy of M-Audio's award-winning Audiophile line to the next level. 4 x 6 audio I/O combines with powerful on-board mixing in a mobile package that's perfect for live performance, home recording, and digital DJ work.

Stereo headphone output with A/B switching between assignable sources allows precuing for DJs and mobile musicians?and the assignable aux bus is perfect for creating dedicated headphone mixes and effect sends. You also get zero-latency hardware direct monitoring, ultra-low latency ASIO software direct monitoring, and 1 x 1 MIDI I/O. FireWire Audiophile even has AC-3 and DTS passthrough for surround sound playback.

Features

4 x 6 24-bit/96kHz I/O

2 x 4 analog operation (RCA)

Digital S/PDIF (coaxial) I/O w/ 2-channel PCM

Digital out also supports AC-3/DTS surround sound

Headphone output with dedicated level control

Flexible software-controlled mixing of hardware and software I/O

Aux sends on all channels and aux output assign allows for dedicated headphone mixes and sends to external effects

User-assignable front-panel level control (output, input, software return, aux send)

Zero-latency hardware direct monitoring

Low-latency ASIO software direct monitoring

Momentary switch for A/Bing two software-assignable headphone sources or switching ASIO monitoring on/off

1 x 1 16-channel MIDI I/O

Power on/off switch with indicator LED

Powered via FireWire bus* or included DC power supply

Two convenient high-bandwidth FireWire ports

Rugged steel construction

Technical Info

Specifications

Frequency Response: 20Hz-40kHz +/-0.40dB, 96kHz sample rate

Dynamic Range: 108dB A-weighted

Signal-to-Noise: 106dB A-weighted

Compatibility

ASIO 2

MME

Sound Manager

DirectX

Mac OS X Core Audio / Core MIDI

Minimum System Requirements - PC

Pentium III 500 MHz or higher

128 MB RAM

Windows 2000 (SP3)/Windows XP (SP1)

DirectX 8.1 or higher

6-pin FireWire port or adapter

Minimum System Requiremennt - Mac

Macintosh G3* 500 MHz or higher w/OS 9.2.2, 128 MB RAM;

G4* 500MHz w/OS 10.1.5 or OS 10.2.6 or greater, 256 MB RAM (OSX)

* G3/G4 accelerator cards not supported; native FireWire ports required
catalog

what our customers say about zZounds

"You truly are the best out there. Prices are great, all the products I need are always in stock, and delivery is lightning quick!" - customer on August 16, 2008

Free Catalog

First Name Last Name
Address 1 Address 2
City State
Zip Email

Would you like to receive periodic email notices of new items, special buys, and promotions? WE WILL NOT SHARE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH ANYONE ELSE. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Tell us

Is there something you want to tell us? How can we serve you better? Want to see different products? Is this shirt ugly? Let us know!