[sdiy] Should I repair my Fostex, or should I go HD recording?

[Magnus Danielson]

From: "JH." <jhaible at debitel.net>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Should I repair my Fostex, or should I go HD recording?
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 01:19:28 +0100
Message-ID: <004a01c4eae0$92d19880$0200a8c0 at jhsilent>

Jürgen,

> > I've never been a fan of onboard DA converters.  Bringing the analog signal
> > inside the computer to its world of interference has always just seemed
> > like the wrong plan to me,
> 
> Seems wrong to me, too.

It is wrong. If you look around you see that otherwise equalent products have
worse S/N in their all-on-a-card solution than when things are being split up.

> The price difference between a MAudio 1010 and 1010LT is tempting, though.

I know exactly what you mean.

> But apart from the shielding, that extra 19" box would be way more
> convenient for me to use than the loose cables.

Indeed. It makes it much easier to patch things and make sturdy connections.
Maybe it's just me, but I've never found it very entertaining to lean over to
the backside of a PC. PCs really require both sides (sadly) where as real
computers only have one usefull side! ;O)

> Layla 24  and Delta 1010 are what I found on my search. Which one is better?
> Or what else to choose? Anything considerably less expensive that will also
> do the job? (I don't know if I need 24bit/96kHz. My beloved reverb is 16bit
> 20kHz. (;->). But I'll have a lot of going back and forth between A and D,
> so high resolution and high sampling rate can't hurt ...

After spending some thought about it, I decided that 24 bit 96 kHz is good for
many reasons. Recording in 96 kHz moves the antialiasing filter side
consequences way out of the audio spectra. Besides, storage is very cheap these
days, so a x2 factor isn't as much a burden as it used to be. 24 bit with good
headroom (and fairly non-mechanical noisefloor) is good in itself. When I get
of my lazy but and buy a new computer and a new soundboard for the studio, then
24/96 is sure on my list. When I did my survey half a year ago or so, the
Delta 1010 was my main choice.

I haven't seen the Layla 24 stuff before. However, looking it up on the Alsa
Project homepage, their link to Echo tells me that the Layla 24 has been
discontinued and it is now Layla 3G that has replaced it. Virtually the same
specs. Check it out:

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/PCI/Layla3G/index.php

I don't consider running anything else than Linux on my box. Call me corny and
old-fashioned, but there it is.

Cheers,
Magnus