Sigmatel DAC sound quality

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http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sound/audiotrak-prodigy192.html

The Prodigy192 comes with the Sigmatel ST9460 codec which is a new 6-channel solution that outputs sound in the 24/192 mode and samples it in the 24/96 one.

The codec of this company makes the card unprofessional. It takes the top position among Sigmatel's products and is meant for consumer audio equipment.

Sigmatel codecs could never boast of high quality before and were always used for cheap sound cards starting from MX300 and YMF724 to Live!5.1. Did Sigmatel manage to improve the quality in its new codec?

We compared the Prodigy192 with its closest competitors: Creative Audigy, Terratec DMX 6Fire 2496 and Audiotrak Maya44. The cards were connected to the Behringer Eurorack MX602 mixer; a signal from it was applied to the Event 20/20bas professional monitors and Sennheiser HD600 headphones.

The result didn't please us much. The Prodigy192 sounded like a typical Sigmatel-based product: the sound was constrained, had sharp metallic highs and lacked for minor details. The Audigy in the next slot produced the same. The Terratec DMX 6Fire had a much clearer and richer sound; the Audiotrak Maya44 sounded not that bad but for blurred highs. In general, the Prodigy192 can't do more than it can despite its professional interfaces, - the card remains a pure multimedia solution.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/creativeaudigy2/index.html

The Live!5.1 (on the Sigmatel STAC9708 codec) has a more aggressive sound with more distortions. The Audigy (on the 6-channel Philips UDA1328 DAC) has a smoother sound, but at the same time it's not so similar to the original: it should have a sharper attack and distinctness at high frequencies. So, both solutions have weak points of a different character, that is why they play on the same level.

 

[T2k]

Buy Prodigy 7.1, that's their best card.

Ego-sys stuffs - Audiotrak is ESI's commercial brand - have their unique "virtual patch panel" by default: you can route any input to any output and vica versa from software - no quality loss whatsoever.

Very useful when you want to simple capture some movie music track but if you're making music, it's a must-have: you can output one sw to another one, to use its proprietary effects or instruments etc.