Had the 2496 for about 1 year and was happy with the sound. I decided to get a mixer and some other equipment. I noticed quiet a bit of interference (hiss/buzz) with the unbalanced connections. I saw the audiophile 192 and the balanced connections and thought it would be worth it to add to my small studio. The balanced connections did the trick and all the noise was gone. Rock solid sound at 24bit 48khz (my pc can't handle the higher 96khz or 192khz but someday it will). Very clear and easy to configure.

Balanced connections was the reason I selected this card. Enough inputs for a small studio with a mixer.

Simple to setup (but I had the 2496 before) and it's virtually the same).

M-Audio makes good equipment. No problems with the card yet.

I did lots of research and the product is really outstanding for the price.

Didn't really have to contact them for support by phone but the website is informative.

N/A

Hobbyist

Pop/Jazz

Excellent product. I have windows 7 and 64 bit DAW processing on a quad core cpu. Had to go to web sight for driver, loaded it up and have been VERY impressed.

Very good versatility, when I upgrade to an audio patch panel this device will expand in versatility. Good Midi too.

Very intuitive interface on the control panel. The documentation could've been more straight forward, but the product IS straight forward.

I'm a senior electronics field engineer and the 192 is a very well made product.

Excellent beans for your buck. Whether you are experienced or not, if you are serious about DAW, you NEED, not want, a good, low latency, easy to operate, excellent sounding, and flexible audio board. This is your huckleberry if you don't want to spend a pile of money.

I never used direct contact.

Active musician

Chill

Sound is flawless. No cracks, pops, hums, or buzzes to chase down.

Good basic features... no 'extras'. Simply does what it's supposed to do, and does it very well. Ins/Outs are ample for me.

Incredibly easy. Select the drivers in your software, and everything works perfectly. Minimal 'fiddling around' required.

Quality couldn't be any better, in my opinion. Sound quality is fantastic. Midi/processing lag is practically non-existent.

As far as I know, the value is outstanding. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one. I've paid more for worse sound cards and USB audio interfaces.

Haven't required any support yet.

It just works. When I'm ready to record, it has never 'gotten in my way' or slowed me down... not once. I cannot say that about any other audio card I have ever owned.

Active Musician, Songwriter, production hobbyist

All

Crisp Clean sound. Works well in my music production setup.

The balanced ins and outs are what drew me to this card. Also, it comes with stripped down versions of Reason, Ableton Live, and some other programs.

Quality is good. Seems well built and durable for a soundcard.

Its a worthwhile purchase

I have dealt with M-Audio before (not for this item, but for their BX8 monitors) and they solved the problem I had in a convenient and timely manner. Good support.

Producer/Beatmaker, Emcee, Composer

Hip-Hop

Very clean and transparent. Awesome for the price.

Hey. Balanced inputs solved a HUGE problem for me. 60 cycle hum is now GONE. Alright!

Dead on easy. Plug it in, download latest drivers, flies like a beautiful bird.

For the price, best option period. Asio drivers are rock solid, sound is awesome. Latency is very low.

Top notch PCI card for produscing audio on a budget.

I am not going to rate support. The website is super easy to navigate, so I always make sure I have the latest drivers. I have never had to contact support. Well ... I guess I will rate support. I give them a "10" because I don't even NEED supoort.

Want it???? Heck. I've had it for roughly 2 years now. It's aces in my book.

Musician, Recording Hobbyist

Jazz tinged Rock and Country

Very clean sound aside from some poping noise i get off one of my two hard drives when record using Sonar, if i use Sonar on the hard drive i dont hear the pop, weird.

I love the 1/4 inch jacks, had to buy some cables to match but seem much more solid to use than the 1/8 plugs

Took awhile to figure out the mixer/patchbay router, but once i got it down its easy

iTS GREAT

price seemed to compete

NA

wow so sexy a pci card, but seriously the 1/4 in jacks hang down and lil to the left so could be similar to other hanging objects

guitar 2 years and recording 6 months

rock

My first "real" interface card. Seems to have reasonably quiet I/O.

Bought it for clean balanced in and SPDIF I/O.

Seems well made. Connectors are solid. Glad I have an external mixer for my outboard gear, as I wouldn't want to reach around the back of the PC to plug stuff in all the time.

Seems to be good balance of quality vs cost.

Don't know how I tolerated using an Audigy for so long!

Long-time hobbyist

Alternative, Rock, and Electronic

Cant say anything wrong about it!

Features are well organized and you have anything you need in there.

A four letter word: EASY. Install drivers, plug it in, wire, and voila!

Cant find anything wrong with the quality.

Not expensive, yet pro sound.

Site is pretty well done, except for the fact that when you click to download drivers, it goes to a midi keyboard page.

Who wouldnt want to start with a card like this. You got all you need, midi, in/out, s/pdif.

active musician

all genres

Great product for freelance producers who like to keep an eye on their budget but can't do without professional quality sound. Great for music production, narration tracks, digital foley and sound effects work. I matched this card with a pair of KRK Rokit 6 reference speakers and subwoofer. (For fun I ran a Blue Ray version of Avatar and a Christmas Carol on Cyberlink's Power DVD 10 with Tru-surround turned on. The sound was excellent). Current use: Sonar X1 as my(DAW) with East West's Complete Composer Collection and Native Instruments Komplete 7 for music production. Sony Sound Forge for processing samples and raw recordings. To reduce "onboard" noise (while working with the above) be sure your system sounds and other programs are off and shielded cables are used for routing.

Disappointingly, Protools M-Powered (included with the product) was incompatible with my particular system (64 bit Windows 7 Pro, Intel i7 processor on a Rampage motherboard) and would not load. The Demo version of Ableton Live seemed to work okay however user/owners are expected to purchase the upgrade before you can access certain features you'll likely want for use in your productions. For whatever reason Sonar X-1 had compatibility issues with Ableton Live existing on the same machine. Removing Ableton allowed Sonar X1 to work as expected.

Product is easy to use. I didn't use the suppied CD as the drivers were out of date. I simply downloaded the most recent files from Avid - M-Audio and they worked fine.

Product and instructions are good.

Navigation on the website is accesible but a little clunky to get to the files you need.

Producer

Film and Video Soundtrack Production

The sound is very impressive and the best I have encountered in my studio from an audio interface. I have previously used the following audio interfaces: Seasound Solo EX, Edirol DA2496, Edirol UA-5 and the Edirol UA-20.

I am absolutely overjoyed that the inputs and outputs are BALANCED and do not come in a seperate unit.

This product was made exceptionally well. Nothing flimsy about it at all.

I paid $199 Canadian for it and it performs better than audio interfaces that have cost me almost $1200.

N/A

Being that it is a PCI audio interface, I like that it is almost invisible in my studio setup and not cramping space.

Recording Engineer

Diverse

The sound quality is excellent. No other way to describe it.

I was waiting forever for a PCI card without a direct box that would offer balanced connectivity. This audio interface does so. My m-audio's monitor outputs are connected to my mixer. My synth and mic preamp are connected to the m-audio's inputs. I am able to use the m-audio's other outputs to my headphones, since I already have another pair of headphones connected to my mixer, I am able to use two headphones simultaneously in the studio. Perfect amount of inputs/outputs for my needs.

Based on M-Audio's delta cards, this PCI card was nicely made. Nothing cheap or disappointing about it.

I purchased it for $199, got more than I bargained for in a great way.

Have not required it.

It is hidden in my studio setup. Not fighting for space, makes me love it more.

Singer

Serious Pop

The sound is excellent! Clean and clear

If you own a good mixer, is has all the input/output you really need. The software (onscreen) mixer works a little differently than a standard mixer, but is VERY flexible.

Once you learn HOW it works, it couldn't be much more simple It is VERY IMPORTANT that you go to the Maudio website and go to trouble shooting for Vista 64, which is does work with, but only if you follow the PC tune up steps....ESPECIALLY the IRQ setup. If it has to share a PCI #, it makes noise, pop and stutter.. However by setting up the IRQ as outlined, it works smoothly with V64!!!!

The quality of sound and function seem to be 'grade A'.

Well worth the price

Thier website gives you what you need, they are minimal in phone or email response. But if you can follow instruction, this item works very well

I rate function in audio equipment, only. Sexy is for women!

I make my living with music

many styles

The recording quality, down to the mixer interface sounds clean.

It has left & right inputs, main outs, monitor outs and midi. I run my sampler to the main outs, the main outs of my mixer plug into the 192's inputs which levels can be controlled in windows. I also have my monitors connected to the monitor outs of the 192.

Sometimes the sound in windows would stall, but after the latest driver update from m-audio I don't experience that. Just plug everything into the conneectors which hang out the back of the pci card.

For it's design and price the quality of the audiophile 192 is high.

When my a/d converters on my usb mixer were failing, I just ran 2 balanced cables from my mixers main outs into the audiophile 192's inputs, pressed record in my DAW and noticed the level meters, practically silent. Not good as an all-around mixer unless you only have one component to record, like a keyboard.

M-audio's site has a knowledge base for your soundcard issues and even a web portal where you can leave questions.

Superb Sounding sound card. I bought this an upgrade to my trusty audiophile 2496. The AP192 is much better, the dynamic range is much wider with great depth. This sound card is very clean and clear. I needed balanced I/O and great sound, and reliabilty. It works flawless with my system. I even recorded at 24 bit 192khz, and it sounded amazing.

Its simple. No fuss, and has the essentials.

Very good for the price. Made in china, but it does the job. I rate this card better than some of the firewire interfaces costing 3 times the price and some.

The best sound card for this price, and Mac & PC compatibilty.

Never had any issues.

Solid card, and solid breakout cables.