Sonic State Studio / Audio Cards/Hardware /
 Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe At a Glance  
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arrowReleased: 99  arrowVersion: 0.00
arrowRated: 8.5/10arrow User reviews: (2)
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arrowSoftware: Win 95/98, Win NT, Win XP, OSX,
arrowHardware: PCI
David writes:
Well, going from a Soundblaster Gold to DAL card is like night and day. This is an absolutely pro quality card and what sold me is it's the only card I could afford with TRS +4 analog hook ups. Changing over my gear to all +4 level TRS has made a dramatic difference in sound quality and noise floor.

So far I've only just mixed some demos straight from ADAT-Mackie w/effects to computer at 44.1, 16 bit (all my software allows), but they are pristine sounding. I've also run some of my dat masters into computer through the S/PDIF in and comparing these to our CD (which was transfered through that crap Gold card) the mixes through the DAL card are way more detailed and 3-D sounding.

It's hard to explain how good this card sounds, but if you value quality over bundled software and zillians of features, this is the card for you!

Installation was absolutely quick and painless and worked perfectly on a Celeron 333.

Note: I don't multitrack on PC so I don't know about how many tracks, etc... Since it's PCI, there should be Mac drivers available soon if not already.

One more thing, real world noise test; I can crank my mixer volume with the cards analog outs in channels and hear little if any noise. (I'm talking way up at +4 level!) Try that with many cards out there and listen to the hiss...

Good Points
Absolutely perfect sound quality. TRS balanced 1/4" inputs and outputs. Gold plated S/PDIF co-ax ins and outs. These guys answer their email, wow! signal to noise ratio: 110 dB!
Bad Points
No bells or whistles or software bundles. (Wait, maybe thats not bad at all...) To change monitoring (analog out monitor digital in or digital out monitor analog in) you've got to go to the device manager to do it, but hey, if you're in a hurry you can put a shortcut on your desktop!
 

 Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe Specifications:

Digital IOs:
SPDIF
Analog IOs:
Stereo balanced TRS 1/4 plugs
Maximum Resolution:96k@24bit

 Card Deluxe Links

Stereophile review of the Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe

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