Laptop Soundcard - Terratec Phase 24 FW or M-Audio ?!?**!!?

philtervoncutoff · Post by **philtervoncutoff** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:21 pm

Just about to get a soundcard for my XP 3.0 Gig Tosh Laptop.

M-Audio gets a real bad press here. I have a 2496 in my desktop at work and it is really sweet sounding and solid!

Thinking of getting a Terratec Phase 24 FW for my laptop. I need midi I/O to connect a keyboard controller and Xtreme Lead Sound Module.

Looking for low latency and as stable as possible.

Needs to be below £200 price point

Thanks - Phil.

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:27 am

The maudio pci stuff is just about flawless, it's the fw stuff that isn't up to snuff/you'll get no satisfaction with.

Now, with 4 pin fw you won't be able to have bus-powered, but seriously consider the presonus stuff. There seems to be much less compatibility issues with presonus firebox (or the new personal fw device looks interesting too) and they should be in your range.

Komplex · Post by **Komplex** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:25 am

I own both of those soundcards and have used both on my toshiba laptop.

they both worked fine excpet the 410 has more inputs.

the terratec is great because its very small and sleek.

I'd say workout how many outputs you need and then decide which one you want. they'll both work fine on a toshie, its the crap laptops that they have problems with

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:31 am

don't forget that the 410 is more like a 210--you can only use two analog ins at one--weak, plus read all sorts of posts on the forum about all sorts of problems with the 410--I'd be weary. I just helped a friend set up his computer for recording, and we got the Alesis Multimix FW 8--check it out--amazing features for the price, pretty much unbeatable for the price. It does only have stereo outs, so no click monitoring without it going through the mains, and it has no midi I/O (but usb midi I/Os are dirt cheap). Worth checking out if you want to have a lot of inputs, and a functional stand-alone mixer....If you have the cash, RME stuff is tops, love my Multiface.

dirtystudios · Post by **dirtystudios** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 4:57 am

I bought a 24 a while back.

Got it, plugged it in, and all it did was output a little static burst every few seconds. Get this, it even did it when it wasn't hooked up to the computer, just powered by the AC adapter.

Sent it back and got another one. Same thing.

Sent that one back and finally got one that worked, but it was so damn noisy I couldn't use it. Got rid of it and got a Firebox, which I've been very happy with so far.

k