Message 16/23
Date: 04-May-98 @ 08:30 PM -
RE: maxisound home studio pro 64
Absolutely, MAXI-SOUND HSP Pro64 is NOT IEC958 COMPLIANT: the official S/PDIF Consumer format norm has been completly ignored when the sound card has been designed!!! I have this info directly from Guillemot's tech manager here in France. I quote: "We have chosen a fixed 44100Hz technology for our S/PDIF interface. If the inputing unit is not EXACTLY at 44100Hz, a few samples may be left over due to reclocking problems. These MAY induce some sound artefacts in no way audible by a human ear."
These "hypothetical" artefacts are more than audible when clicks come up at 0db on your recording meters !!! I have pushed intensive tests on a first card that I returned thinking it was faulty. The second one I received had exactly the same problems and after long debates with Guillemot tech services they simply said "it was something possible... and that It would be better if I changed for a Professionnal S/PDIF card..."
Main problems on S/PDIF are:
- Random clicks and pops up to 0 db when recording
- +- 3db loss on input and output SPDIF transfers
- A terrible aliasing on low freqs (Bass Drum)
All these design flaws affects ONLY the SPDIF I/O, the analog circuits and the MIDI sampler works PERFECTLY well and is vastly superior than SB cards for that price range.
To conclude, HSPro 64 is a fine card for general and home studio use (much better than SB64) and the Dream Chip is really worth the deal to get 8 Audio channels in Cubase or Cakewalk. But forget using the so-called S/PDIF interface as is absolutly not reliable and really crappy.
Guillemot has completly FU****-up all their customers with marketing stuff but don't get fooled: S/PDIF interface for less than £180 isn't for today. I'm going for a SEK'D Prodif32 as soon as I get paid back by Guillemot... Hope that one will do it's job....