M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Sound Card

My requirement for a soundcard was for primarily one thing, stereo audio reproduction of a FLAC music library held on a NAS server, therefore this review only relates to that functionality.

Used with; QED 3 Phono connect, Muse M21 EX T-Amp, QED MK2 Original Bi-Wire, Mission 780SEs with Monacor drivers.

I'd been using an old creative labs Audigy EX pro since about 2002 (or whenever it was released), which had served me pretty well for mp3s and games etc. However I've recently moved my CD collection to a FLAC NAS/Squeezebox server, with Squeezebox receivers dotted around the house. The quality of sound from the creative suffered in contrast to the Squeezebox receivers, so time for either another soundcard.

I decided to give creative a miss this time, I think they've been overtaken in the Stereo/Audiophile stakes somewhat, which left me with three options, the ASUS ASUS XONAR ESSENCE ST (I don't have a spare PCI Express slot for the STX), and the two M-Audio offerings the 192 and the 2496.

From all reviews the ASUS seems to be the class leader for pure stereo playback, but given that this is not my main system (that's a huge stack of audiolab kit), I plumped for the 2496 for cost reasons. I'm sure the M-Audio 192 is also an excellent piece of kit, but given that all I want is high quality FLAC reproduction at 44.1KHz, and not high quality recording, I felt its 192 sample rate redundant for me.

So how does it sound? Very well is the answer, much smother and more detailed than the creative it replaced, with a better soundstage, the fact that one can use decent phono interconnects is one major advantage on its own. I'd place it on a par in terms of quality with a squeezebox receiver/classic (I have both elsewhere in the house), sonically its more like the classic(burr-brown DAC), the receiver is a little brighter (wolfson DAC), although it would be difficult to decide between the three, although the 2496 may still have a little burn-in time to go, it's only been going for 3 days so far. One minor gripe, and hence only 4 stars is the output volume, it's a little quieter than the creative, this could be due to some unrequired DSP from the creative, who knows.

It is not as good as my upgraded audiolab DAX, no surprise there given the order of magnitude cost difference, but more relevantly it is not as good as my mates Dacmagic 3 (the budget benchmark DAC in many opinions), but then again that's about £240 worth of kit too, and both have dual DAC configurations with a wedge more kit.

So that kind of sets the parameters for me, if you want a great sounding soundcard for your PC for audio playback then this is the way to go. For me if I were prepared to spent more for the ASUS, about £170, I'd find the extra and buy the Dacmagic instead.

Highly recommended, and simple to install...

M-audio is a leading manufacturer, and always delivers high quality products...thats why i bought the 2496 when upgrading my studio.
Quality sound from a decent frequency range, easy to install and updates and drivers are freely available.

The Sound card, is, what it is claimed to be by the manufacturers. Simple to
install >> connect up and use.

Many other Sound Cards are great - but, so complicated to use ( You need to go to Uni. to learn how to use them ) The M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496 is compatible with 95% of the VSTi & DXi soft ware as well as Digi Design Hard ware and accessories therewith, which makes it a Force to be reckoned with in the Music Production Industry.

The Seller was pretty cool about alot of things and came over as a Pretty Swell Dude - Honest too ! But he moved on to bigger and Better Hard ware - I don't see why - as 6 of one & half a dozen of another, just has less wiring to deal with, but that has it's limits so to speak.

This is a 'Great Deal' for the Beginner, as the Help files provided on the installation Disk are easy to follow and apply. Most Recording / Media, even BBC throw their Money into M-Adio and it's affiliated Hard Ware and Soft Ware,
So we now have a Frame of Reference to look up to.

My Best to all,

Graham Bird.
'Gravity in Texas'

This is a great sound card for the music enthusiast. I have mine now setup fully in my linux based audio work station. It works fully with the ALSA system, both analogue, digital and midi play back and recording work. There appears to be a bug with the PulseAudio system that means that analogue recording does not work but, as I use ALSA for serious recording work, this has not been a problem for me. For more details on a patch for PulseAudio see:
https://bugs.launchpad.ne​t/ubuntu/+source/asoundconf-gt​k/+bug/515874/comments/2

I have yet to test it under windows but have little doubt that it will be equally as good under that operating system.

I bought this pro sound card nowadays but it's a bit old so this review misses its point.
Technically - the card delivers crisp audio and the setup was a breeze. The breakout cables are a bit short and could have been longer :(
Software-wise - well it misses a decent control panel (the one it has is a bit simplistic) but other than that - integration with ALL 3rd party software was simply perfect.

GREAT card at an affordable price!