[linux-audio-user] M audio delta 44

[Tobiah]

> If you wonder why
> the 1010lt is so much cheaper per channel: it has the DA/AD's on board
> while the 44, 66 and 1010 [without lt] have them in a breakout box which
> should help keeping noise out..


Midiman definitely marketed the card this way, without
actually saying that the 44 had the DAC's in the breakout
box.  I only have the 44, but upon opening the breakout
box you will see that not only are there no electronics
inside other than a few resistors, but the wiring is suspect
with respect to true balanced IO.  I'm not an audio engineer,
but I seem to remember seeing that the adjacent channel pairs
shared one of the pins of the balanced audio.

The card sounds great, but after using it with about 5 different
motherboards, currently 2.5Gig 512/Meg,  I find that I can not
get 100% reliable operation from any multitrack program under
windows or Linux.  It runs pretty well, but inevitably in
a session with several tracks, I will lose a few samples somewhere.
I have tried everything possible with patching the kernel, ordering
IRQ priorities, setting PCI latency values, etc.  I'm thinking
that the only thing left that has been constant for the last
several years through all of my endeavors has been the Delta 44.


Tobiah