Soundcard for my laptop: Onyx Satellite ?

[Moon]

I'm not very happy with my internal soundcard of my laptop and we allready found out that the pcmai card from creative is not the best option.

To my surprice, I re-discovered the Mackie Onyx Satellite which nowdays is retailing at only 159 euro. It looks very good value for money.

Some reviews are talking about "whine" noises when using the docking station, others say it has a perfect audio signal.

Anyone here that had experience with this card ?

Moon

[Fred S]

I'm not very happy with my internal soundcard of my laptop and we allready found out that the pcmai card from creative is not the best option.

To my surprice, I re-discovered the Mackie Onyx Satellite which nowdays is retailing at only 159 euro. It looks very good value for money.

Some reviews are talking about "whine" noises when using the docking station, others say it has a perfect audio signal.

Anyone here that had experience with this card ?

Moon

Well, Moon, I'd like to help you out, but, you know more than I

[rharv]

I have read a couple bad reviews on the Onyx, but didn't comment because I didn't have the time to go research them and post them.  For the life of me I don't remember what the complaints were, but remember being surprised...then the price dropped!

**Found a couple common complaints (made more than once)-
noise from base station
38V (not 48) phantom power
a dip at 100Hz in the preamp itself
no good with a Mac- loses firewire connection a lot
no Vista support

..a couple people complain of bleeding between inputs and monitoring (if true this would be totally unacceptable here)

 others opinions, not mine

[Moon]

Hi rharv, thanks for the comments. This complies with my readings. Apparently there are noise issues with the base station, but it's not clear if this is a common problem or a real problem (some complaints are with a noise level of 90db...)

The bleeding is towards the monitoring, if this is also the case with the input, than this is more severe (i though there was only an issue when using multiple monitoring pairs and shutting some off...)

The issue with the preamp is new to me, again surprised since they speak so highly of the onox preamps.

I must admit, it doesn't surprise me that there are a few issues, how else could you explain the price drop of +/- 60 %

So, cheap... but not a bargain ?

[rharv]

I don't want to talk you out of it, I did that to myself.  I noticed the price drop and researched it as I was thinking I may need another preamp and it looked good initially.  If I see common complaints on seperate forums or sites I tend to think there may be something there.  Judging by the reviews, it appears the problems may sporadic, or only some units have them.  Quality control...

[Moon]

Yes, there's definetly something wrong with the technical design of the unit.

I do have another option: I could get myself an EMU PCMCIA cardbus and use my 1820m on my laptop. Only, question is, if the older 1820m is compatible with the current cardbus. I've emailed the tech support at EMU and see what they can tell me.

In case it is compatible, I would have a very fine soundcard on my laptop without breaking my bank account!

Moon

[Fred S]

I do have another option: I could get myself an EMU PCMCIA cardbus and use my 1820m on my laptop. Only, question is, if the older 1820m is compatible with the current cardbus. I've emailed the tech support at EMU and see what they can tell me.

In case it is compatible, I would have a very fine soundcard on my laptop without breaking my bank account!

Moon

That sounds like a good idea!

[Moon]

I just got word from EMU. Fast respons but unfortunatly not the answer I was expecting: the Cardbus 02 is only compatible with the new docks 

So back to square 1....