M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Audio Interface

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Enhance your home studio. Transfer your LPs to digital formats. Dress up your home theater system. This interface helps you do anything with sound.

M Audio's Audiophile 2496 card is the latest addition to its highly successful Delta family of sound cards. The Audiophile 2496 is an all-in-one high-fidelity sound card solution for a wide variety of applications, ranging from multitrack recording to computer-based home theater. Analog I/O is available on RCA jacks, utilizing the same professional 24-bit 96kHz conversion as the Delta 44 and Delta 66 cards. S/PDIF I/O and MIDI I/O provide connectivity to both digital devices and the world of MIDI. The Audiophile 2496 includes a powerful digital mixer/router, and control over SCMS (Serial Copy Management System). Delta cards support all computer platforms and major software programs.

With software support, the Audiophile 2496 is one of the highest-fidelity home theater sound card available today.

Applications

- 24-bit, 96 kHz multitrack recording
- MIDI recording and playback
- Digital transfers; Digital mastering
- LP/cassette-to-CD transfers
- Computer-based Home Theater systems
- Powerful digital mixing, routing and monitoring capabilities with included software

Dimensions: 5-1/4 in. x 5 in. x 7/8 in.

Weight: 2 lbs.

Dynamic Range: D/A 104.0dB (a-weighted), A/D 100.4dB (a-weighted)

THD: less than 0.002%

Freq. Response: 22Hz - 22kHz, -0.4,-0.4dB

Includes Windows 95/98, ASIO/ASIO2, Mac, GSIF, DirectX and Windows NT/2000 drivers.

System Requirements (PC)
Windows 98SE / Me / 2000 (SP4) / XP (SP2) / Vista SP2 (32Bit , 64 Bit) / Win7 (32Bit , 64 Bit)

Pentium III 500Mhz - (96kHz operation)

Pentium II 400 - (48kHz operation)

128 MB of PC100 RAM - (96kHz operation)

64 MB of SDRAM - (48kHz operation)

UDMA EIDE or ATA 33/66 HDD

System Requirements (Mac)
G4 or G3

MacOS 8.6 or higher

128 MB RAM - (96kHz operation)

64 MB RAM - (48kHz operation)

OMS 2.3.8 for MIDI operation

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 401-658-5765

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. (388 ratings)
Submitted February 16, 2004 by a customer from sbcglobal.net

"M Audio has done right with the Audiophile 24/96"

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I will be using this product for years to come I imagine. I will certainly look at M Audio for my next card due to my experience with this one. If I had to buy another card right now, it would be this one.

Sound
Crystal clear 24/96 sound with just about absent noise and distortion. What else can I say?

Features
Clearly the best card in it's price range and for another $200 or so above it for that matter. I had done quite a bit of shopping before I bought this one. Digital and analog sources can be used at the same time. It has basic features, but those features are well-designed and practical.

Quality
I'm not one to care about the looks of an audio card so I just won't comment on that. The product appears to be made well and is packaged well for transit. I expect it will work well for years to come.

Value
Hands-down best value for the price in my book. In my exhaustive search for the best card for my application, I found nothing coming close with regards to specs, price, and quality.

Manufacturer Support
I have not had to use support per se. I just downloaded the newest drivers. I did have to manually pick the drivers instead of windows finding them automatically for some reason, but they did load fine after that.

The Wow Factor
This is not a ground-breaking product with regards to features. It's read more a very well-designed "workhorse". Not alot of bells-and-whistles. You can find features like this in many other cards, but the appeal certainly lies in the value for your money and ease of use.

Musical Style:
Progressive rock and Jazz
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