For what it is, it's very good

I have to question one of the reviews that suggested this as only a notch above SB cards. This blows away anything creative has in their consumer line. I'm not much fond of the emu products either but.....

Anyway, there are NO XLR i/o on the breakout cable. Those are midi connectors. Let's not propagate misinfo here. The only downfall is that it is strictly unbalanced I/O but for most hobbyists, this card is not a Ferrari more like a Honda S2000. Sure it's just a honda but it's got power under the hood.

Great sounding card

This sound card is just a notch above the Soundblaster Audigy in terms of quality. The Audigy has more features however, perhaps features not needed by recording musicians. My Audiophile had noticable clicking noise initially, but disappeared after adjusting the latency.

IIRC: Sort of Worked Great under Tiger ...

Very frustrating trying to use it under Leopard 10.5.8. Drivers don't load properly on a cold boot of my Quicksilver 2002 G4 Dual 1GHz, and Uninstall doesn't work. Tried replacing the PCI card with a newer version, and even the mobo. Tech Support at the new Avid / M-Audio, don't speak English, and suggest you try it in another machine and report back to them (although they are unwilling to pay you for doing their research). It will work, but only after a few kp's, every time you cold boot. Most recent suggestion by Sweetwater: go back to Tiger 10.4.11. That seems to be stable. Will do, but disappointed M-Audio/Avid hasn't kept up with 10.5 on a G4 ... years after 10.5 came out ... and it probably just has to do with Permissions and Ownership under the OS X ... as evidenced by their Uninstaller not working.

Not as Great as they say!

After several questions of concern about the setup and recording abilities of the card the rep claimed it would be easy and "anyone could set it up" Well I'm not impressed. Instructions in manual are poor and incomplete at best, and waiting for 20 minutes on hold at the tech support line is not impressive. Never got help, never go it to work. I'm not a computer novice, but I found out I am when it comes to the M-Audio 2496!

IT'S DA BEST

There can be no doubt that this is the best card in it's price range.I use it as one of the inputs with my keyboard.FL studio's potential is best revealed by this card.The only drawback as I see it is the break-out cable...it can be very easily damaged if handled too much or if your pet dog chews it!!! But i hope M-Audio will continue providing spares.

Best $100 sound card

I've been using this card for 6 or 7 months. Had many opinions from fellow musicians, redio, and recording people and ALL were good. I use with Acid Pro 5 so more In/Out not that important since Acid just does one track at a time. Also use through Mackie Mixer and Cubase...only have two out on mixer so it works fine for my budget studio setup. I won't replace until I upgrade the entire setup because this card does all that I need at this point and has excellent sound quality!

Audiophile 2496

This card is a great way to get into a low Latent high quality audio card for little $$. Although only 2 In/OUT ports. It is great for a songwriter to an audio editor.Midi ports add to the value. Highly recommended.

bang for the buck

you will not find another sound card for 150 to do what the audiophile 2496. allows you to run midi with low to zero latacy. you can bring in qulity samples for anywhre. they have 2 xlr jacks in the back of the card good for a dat,dvd,cd,other instuments.


THIS CARD IS THE UPGRADE FORM THE SOUNDBLASTERS GETTING INTO REAL PRO

AUDIO PRODUCTION. IS A GOOD GIFT TO ANYONE SERIOUSE ABOUT SPENDING TIME WITH MUSIC.