Good C-Media USB sound card?

[miso]

Well obviously you need to do a search to get a price. The amplifiers
for the H2 and H2N are very quite for the built in microphones. They
suck on the external microphone inputs. I don't have the H4 for comparison.

You really want the H2N over the plain H2 if you are using the line
input. The H2 feeds the line input directly to the ADC, i.e. no level
control. The H2N allows the line input to be attenuated.

I've used them for nature sounds, outdoor concerts, etc. My expectations
are all that high for those purposes. I've also used them to record
scanners. The VOX feature supposedly works well now, but with the cost
of flash so cheap, I just record everything and use Audacity to "trim
silence".

The cases are plastic and thus not shielded all that well. I have had
radar get picked up by the internal microphone amps.

I've stashed the recorders away from people and let them catch nature
sounds. Sometimes entertaining if a bee starts buzzing around it. You
can pick up bird calls.

You probably want to get a dead cat for it if you don't want wind noise.
For example:

 

[miso]

I thought you wanted an ADC, not a DAC.

 

[miso]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102185

That is the beast I used to have. Some of the reviews complain about the
drivers. Well duh.... . I will admit it was fine under linux until it broke.

 

[miso]

Works fine for the sigint. I use to do demodulate digital signals off of
radios. The specs aren't great, but the cost sure is, and the metal
cases can take some abuse. The A/D on C-media cards is about 90db SNR. I
am dealing with signals with 40db.

NI data? The freaking SB card was only 70 bucks. I don't see the
comparison at all.

I need lots of channels. They don't have to be great, but they need to
be plentiful.

 

[George Herold]

Well obviously you need to do a search to get a price. The amplifiers
for the H2 and H2N are very quite for the built in microphones. They
suck on the external microphone inputs. I don't have the H4 for comparison.

You really want the H2N over the plain H2 if you are using the line
input. The H2 feeds the line input directly to the ADC, i.e. no level
control. The H2N allows the line input to be attenuated.

I've used them for nature sounds, outdoor concerts, etc. My expectations
are all that high for those purposes. I've also used them to record
scanners. The VOX feature supposedly works well now, but with the cost
of flash so cheap, I just record everything and use Audacity to "trim
silence".

The cases are plastic and thus not shielded all that well. I have had
radar get picked up by the internal microphone amps.

I've stashed the recorders away from people and let them catch nature
sounds. Sometimes entertaining if a bee starts buzzing around it. You
can pick up bird calls.

You probably want to get a dead cat for it if you don't want wind noise.
For example:

OK I went looking for a price but found nothing right away.
I bought a "natures window" outdoor mic with amp/speaker for my wife
several years ago.
She keeps it on continuously during the spring and fall.
http://www.tmbstudios.com/proddetail.asp?prod=NW3
(We must have version 1.)
I made a wind shield from a bit of gauze and 1/2 of a plastic pop
bottle.

George H.

 

[Joerg]

I thought you wanted an ADC, not a DAC.

I need both. The output can be fairly crude and I only need one channel.
The ADC needs to be superb and both channels must remain in perfect
lockstep. Not clock dither, all squeaky clean. Because I'll do phase
measurements between the two. 96k would be nice but 48k is ok.

 

[Joerg]

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/audio/codecs/hd-codecs.jsp

But I could not find any datasheet:

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/audio/codecs/vt2021/

This time I made sure that I have information which chip is in the sound
module and also that I have its datasheet in hand before ordering. That
allowed me to ascertain the sanity of the concept at least to some
extent. It's the PCM2902, old but apparently quite robust. So I have
ordered the Behringer UCA202 that Lasse suggested. Should be here next week.