Re: advice on equipment (headphones, microphones, sound cards) ("Ward R. Drennan" )


Subject: Re: advice on equipment (headphones, microphones, sound cards)
From:    "Ward R. Drennan"  <drennan@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:26:35 -0700
List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>

I found the E-MU 0202 USB external D/A to be quite good for the price. Check mic inputs to make sure they meet your needs. Ward R. Drennan, Ph. D. VM Bloedel Hearing Research Center University of Washington Box 357923 CHDD Building Room CD176 Seattle, WA 98195-7923 Phone: (206) 897-1848 Fax: (206) 616-1828 Please note the confidentiality of e-mail cannot be guaranteed. If you are concerned about confidentiality of specific information, do not send it by e-mail. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pawel Kusmierek" <pawel.kusmierek@xxxxxxxx> To: <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 11:29 AM Subject: Re: advice on equipment (headphones, microphones, sound cards) > Dear Maria, > > soundblaster cards are known for various departures of real > specifications from published specifications, for undocumented > features, and for features which are supposed to make the sound more > attractive for a gamer, but they damage accuracy. I don't know about > the X-Fi line, but Audigy 2NX (and possibly all Audigy cards) is > advertised as having 24-bit converters. They are probably 24-bit, but > the data always go through a signal processor which is 16-bit, and the > 8 least significant bits are lost. Any CMSS or whatever is the > current name for their spatial enhancement systems must be turned off > if any accuracy is to be expected. And CMSS is on by default. > SoundBlaster cards are also known for supporting only few sampling > frequencies, i.e., 48 kHz and sometimes 96 kHz. Anything else will be > resampled on the fly by the card, and the quality of the resampling > might be poor - though this problem is especially annoying with some > onboard cards. Of other "interesting" features, my experience was > that SB Live! 1024 had an undocumented compressor built in into top ~3 > dB of the recording range. There was no way to turn it off. > > The bottom line is - I would stay away from SB cards for serious > applications. I had good experiences with M-Audio cards (though I > never tried the Transit). Edirol, ESI and E-mu are other respectable > companies which make external soundcards. The Echo and Digigram PCMCIA > cards should be very good, too. > > HD280 are a decent choice if you want closed headphones. I hope that > you are aware that they won't work in an fMRI scanner, it would be > even very dangerous to bring them into a scanner! > > Hope this helps, > > Pawel > > > > On 29/08/2007, Chang, Maria <Maria.Chang@xxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Hello, >> >> I am purchasing equipment for auditory fMRI experiments run off of a >> laptop. I am looking for a sound card (PC card, usb, or ExressCard), >> headphones and a microphone. >> >> The recording capabilites of the sound card and microphone don't need to >> be top of the line, they just need to be good enough for us to record >> quality auditory stimuli (i.e. we will not be collecting speech data from >> subjects). Although, if a sound card with outstanding recording >> capabilities is only slightly more expensive, then I would be willing to >> invest in it in case we decide to collect speech data in the future (same >> goes for the microphones). >> >> So far I've found the following options: >> >> Headphones - Sennheiser HD280 PRO >> Microphones - Shure SM-93, Audio Technica AT803B >> Sound Cards - Echo Indigo, M-Audio Transit, Digigram VxPocket, >> SoundBlaster Audigy 2Zs, SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme >> >> Any recommendations (on or off this list) or objections? Any advice is >> greatly appreciated! >> >> Thanks!! >> >> -maria >> > > > -- > Pawel Kusmierek PhD > Department of Physiology and Biophysics > Georgetown University Medical Center > The Research Building WP23 > 3970 Reservoir Road NW > Washington, DC 20007 > phone: +1 202 687-8851 or 8028 >


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