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|  | |  | | | EMU 0204USB Portable USB bus-powered interface for Mac and PC with 2 mic preamps | | | | | | | |
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EMU:0204USB-B | | Availability:
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| | Features | Premium 24-bit/192kHz A/D and D/A converters * (A/D: 113dB SNR, D/A: 113dB SNR) delivering you a pristine recording/capture and playback experienceUltra-low noise Mic/Hi-Z/Line preamplifiers with ground lift switches enable you to record microphones, keyboards or guitars directly into your computer delivering professional results (XLR, 1/4" TRS, and 1/8" 5V condenser mic input)Ultra-low latency USB drivers offer accurate timing and playback of your recorded audio and expressive control of your software instrumentsIndependent headphone DAC path to enable separate playback and cueing for DJ applicationsHardware zero-latency direct monitoring (mono/stereo) allows you to record and overdub with no timing delays
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| | Description | E-MU's new 0204 USB Audio Interface is the ultimate portable 2-in/4-out USB audio interface for PC and Mac, offering pristine 24-bit/192kHz recording and playback, direct monitoring and a host of professional features in a compact, USB bus-powered package. The 0204 USB sets a new standard in portable USB audio, providing users with two Class-A preamps that can be run independently or in stereo to amplify guitars, keyboards or microphones, with individual ground lift switches for optimal audio performance. | |
| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 11.2 inches | | Product Width: | 3.4 inches | | Product Height: | 8.8 inches | | Product Weight: | 2.35 pounds | | Package Length: | 11.0 inches | | Package Width: | 8.7 inches | | Package Height: | 3.4 inches | | Package Weight: | 2.8 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 11 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 11 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Not the bargain it looks to be Sep 15, 2011
By Reticuli
No MIDI.
No digital ins/outs.
Outputs are unbalanced TS jacks, even though internally there is the circuitry for balanced outs. WTF?
The inputs are not a matched pair and produce slightly out-of-sync, out-of-phase low-end compared to prior Emu interfaces.
Headphone jack may be Class A circuitry, but is somewhat limited voltage (i.e. volume, common with Class A) and is inherently loaded to 22 ohms, which means your headphones need to be over 176 ohms to be driven well (22 ohms X 8 for proper electrical-mechanical damping). I'm still finding it sufficiently low to drive the 100 ohm ER4S pretty well. The 22 ohms is probably a necessity for the circuit design so that the headphone jack can perform as a line out nearly as well as the rear outs do. But this means it's really not suitable for headphones under 100 ohms, as they will come off sounding thinner, edgier, and not particularly dynamic as they should. The Fiio E7 does a much better job with those types of headphones. To be fair to Emu/Creative, the Fiio E7's headphone amp doesn't sound nearly as open or tuneful as the 0204's jack with the ER4S. Oddly, though I can't explain why, the Fiio's line-in actually sounds better to me run from the Emu headphone jack.
The big hang-up here is the ASIO playback in 24-bit has drop-outs, tics, and glitches in the included Mixcraft 4 LE and Winamp with the ASIO plug-in. What exactly is the point of ASIO if you must put the latency at max, and even then there are occasional problems? Bit-perfect is great, but a digital audio signal is not actually bit-perfect if there are split-second drop-outs... by definition.
How many people would buy this expecting ASIO perfection? And inferior recording performance over older models? And no digital or MIDI ins & outs?
Yes, the DAC does sound very nice on it, but it's based on prior Emu designs that did not have these problems. It just doesn't make sense to me.
By the way, I'm using Windows 7 64bit, not this Mac Lion OS people are complaining about. You have my condolences on your purchase. Emu's assimilation into Creative is complete, I guess. Based on my experience with the 1212m, I was very hopeful. The 0204 works "well enough" in non-ASIO modes, the DAC is excellent, the headphone jack does sound good with the right headphones, but it's otherwise a very sad state for the Emu line.
Perhaps if you have a very fast computer or one with no other processes running in the background you won't have problems? I guess that's not me, but my computer specifications are much higher than the minimum hardware on the box. Recommended only for hifi use with reservations, but for pro and live use the 0204 is not up to snuff with these drivers.
Edit: Creative did help me improve the 0204's ASIO performance slightly by suggesting I put it on a USB port that does not share IRQs with anything else and to also turn off all legacy USB 1 slots in Device Manager. I have one port on my laptop on the left side that allows that. The port on the right shares the DVD and the hard drives with it, so that's out of the question. I also increased RAM to 4GB and swapped my Celeron 900 CPU for a Core2Duo. The biggest improvement I got, though, was a random discovery of having the battery disconnected. Yes, you have to be AC-powered (obviously) to do this, but it drastically improved DPC latency. Still, you can't do ANYTHING else if you want it to be glitch free. You might even want to turn off your WIFI reception (that little key on my keyboard) to improve it even more. No internet. No outside applications. So it's still not quite ready for live use, but it's getting a little better at least for 20ms latency settings. I have no problems with 4 other interfaces, though, at 5-10ms latency. So it's clearly a driver issue.
And I misspoke previously, Kernel and WASAPI theoretically provide identical performance in both bit-perfect-ness, latency, and asynchronous anti-jitter characteristics compared to ASIO. It's just that ASIO has the widest support with pro apps and is usually the most stable. I don't see a whole lot of stability difference between the three on applications that support them.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 What you get depends on what your expecations are Jun 25, 2011
By Stephen M. Lerch
In my case, the use for this particular device is as a relatively cheap DAC for audio fed from my PC using USB 2.0 to my home receiver. I am not using it for recording anything, though everything I read on-line tells me this is a great device for such a use at this price.
I purchased this to be my headphone amp and more importantly, my DAC for audio from my PC. For both applications from a Windows 7 Pro 64 bit I couldn't be happier!
First, the manual. It's utilitarian but gets the job done. They also do a decent job of making you aware that you need to leave the device unplugged for up to 30 seconds when you unplug it from your PC, or you run the risk of it having to run in USB 1.0 mode which is far from ideal. It walks you through setup and installation in fairly short order. Make sure you install the drivers before plugging the device in.
Configuration, once it is installed is fairly simple and straight forward. You open the E-MU USB Audio Application using the icon on your desktop (assuming you put one on the desktop). It will detect your device and when it does you just have to choose the sampling rate you want sent to your external device. Very simple.
It also uses asynchronous USB for timing. This is unusual in a device this inexpensive and actually gives you a more accurate upsampling then a straight synchronous USB connection. Given the price, most people did NOT expect asynchronous capability from this little box as it is usually reserved for DACs 3x or more expensive.
So... will this make your music sound amazing? It depends. If the DAC on your other device (home theater receiver, etc) is better, then no. But what most receivers don't do is up sample. Couple this upsampling AND what is regarded as a high quality DAC, and what you send to your receiver will be exactly what you have coming from your PC. Upsampling a 44.1 CD to 192 KHz will just guarantee that you are hearing everything in the original recording and not really do much to make it richer. The DAC can have this ability but again, only if it is better than the DAC on your normal device. And in my case, it definitely is.
What about the headphone amp capability? In a word, amazing. The sound from J River Media Player with straight headphones is darn good for sure. Add on an efficient headphone amp and your music will be make music that much richer.
If you can use the device on your system (I believe the Mac drivers are available from E-Mu's site now), at $150 or so, it is definitely worth it. Even as just a headphone amp you may find value in it.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
It is a nice DAC Jan 21, 2012
By Paul Ahn
I bought this device to make head-fi system which doesn't cost too much money.
Before I purchase e-mu 0204, I visited many online communities about headphone and DAC.
There were so many devices and It was hard for me to choose dac device.
But many communities suggest me to buy this device as a headphone amp and DAC,so I could decide to buy this one.
Because I live in S.Korea, I delivered it to my aunt's house which is in alberta, Canada.
And I asked my aunt to bring this item when husband of my aunt come to S.korea.
It was delivered just the day before husband of my aunt leave the Canada.
It totally tooked almost 3weeks to get this item.
It's installation was very simple. Plug it into usb2.0 port and run CD which is elcosed in installation kit.
When I first listened the music with headphone(Shure srh840) which is plug to e-mu 0204, it's sound was very nice and I could recognize sound that I couldn't catch with ordinary speaker which is plugged in mainboard headphone jack.
I'm using Window 7 64bit and this device have no problem. And this device is work very well in usb2.0 interface.
I'm so satisfied with e-mu 0204 and my first head-fi system.
I think e-mu 0204 is good choice at this price, and it is worth it.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Not good for travelling studio Dec 21, 2011
By Sean
My usual traveling audio interface is the Mbox 3, but I left it at home on my latest trip and needed an interface so I decided to go ahead and purchase this one because of the amazing specs. If this is used solely as an audio interface for just listening to music it serves its purpose, but for me it did not work well at all when using it with Ableton Live 8 and Cubase 6. When recording in 24 bit and 48, the unit had constant dropouts, so I dropped it down to 24/44 and it still had dropouts and jitters with random spurts of latency when recording midi.
I definitely don't recommend this if you are going to use it for recording, but if its just as an external sound card for your laptop then it does its job.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Mac OSX Lion is finally supported!! Aug 12, 2011
By Milon
I have to change my review of this product, I was criticising it for having no OSX Lion driver but now one has finally become available, albeit after 3 months of waiting.
The unit is actually very good, lightweight, portable and great sound quality if hooked up to a decent pair of monitors. You can use it for live sets, music production or DJ'ing on your PC or laptop. So far apart from the driver issue I am very happy with it.
On the negative the E-MU / Creative Pro customer support is really terrible. Its probably not directly their fault but they gave no information regarding a new OSX driver when asked, no date and no indication one was even being developed - just an extremely generic unhelpful answer that didn't really say anything. I nearly replaced mine from another brand (though only a few months old) so I am glad I waited. I suggest they work on their PR a bit and reassure their customers next time a new driver is at least in the pipeline.
See all 11 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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