Are the I/O's the same on all CW cards?

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 12:44 pm

Hi all,

When I had my PowerPulsar 2, I always thought I had heard ground noise and was not entirely impressed with the I/O's of the CW card I had. This was a major downfall for my view of the card when I had it, (the other was a serious midi timing issue).

So now I am wondering, is there actually any difference in I/O from the cheapest CW card and the most expensive card? This was a concern since the cheapest card is like $390.00 retail and that has a DSP or two and sfp? so in that case that card had it had zero dsp would be like $290.00 card or close to that.

Just curious, not trying to stir the pot at all, but if they are the same I/O in the scope cards as in the the budget line, maybe they should step it up, because that is a pretty important factor for many users these days, hence cards like RME, Lynx etc etc..

I open the thread to discussion.

Cheers!

Post by **garyb** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:08 pm

the i/os are first quality.you have grounding problems,you have noise.

real studios are balanced.....

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:24 pm

the DSPs aren't the most expensive parts on the card - that's the software !

The chips do count of course because they have to be prepaid - say if CWA orders 5k Pulsar 2s this makes 30k chips at roughly $ 300k before even one board is sold.
It's not that easy to precisely estimate the best ratio between low fabrication cost (high unit count) and financing that stuff.
Banks are extremely careful with those deals.

The converters on the board are excellent, but of course exposed to noise inside the PC case. Since cases and EMC layouts aren't oriented at professional audio standards there are huge differences in powersupplies and case design.

On my own system I've reduced noisefloor from -55 to -80 dB because I had an extemely bad design of those components.
I have a Pulsar One with 20bit input converters (yours are 24bit) but they do sound very good to my ears. The output converters are identical afaik.

cheers, Tom

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:32 pm

Gary,

I should have prefaced, I was reffering to more of inside ground noise, EG: Move your optical mouse you hear buzzing, this becomes very apparent using cans. I have a box with a lynxTwo in it, zero internal noise, atleast that I can hear, it is extremely clear sounding..

** Also, your responce did not even aim at the question I possed. Are the I/O's the same in all models?

Cheers!

Post by **hubird** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:56 pm

On 2004-02-13 13:32, Basic Pitch wrote:
Are the I/O's the same in all models?
Cheers!

yes.
but the noise you have isn't the card's fault.
Even if you use the card outs instead of a Luna box or A16, the noise floor should be very low, tho not as low compared to box outs, as Astro explained

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:46 pm

On 2004-02-13 13:32, Basic Pitch wrote:
... Move your optical mouse you hear buzzing, this becomes very apparent using cans. I have a box with a lynxTwo in it, zero internal noise, atleast that I can hear, it is extremely clear sounding..
...

in my case this was reproducable cured with a different powersupply.
have a look

BasicPitch, are you absolutely shure that the Lynx isn't gated ? it's a much appreciated 'trick' - nothing bad with that if it's implemented smart.
oops, I forgot: the Lynx certainly draws much less power than the DSPs, that's why the Pulsar is more sensible to trouble from the powersupply.
Perhaps you can lend a stronger one for a test (?)

cheers, Tom

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2004-02-13 17:51 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2006-08-18 18:22 ]</font>

Post by **garyb** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 9:18 pm

also i was not really trying to be difficult.grounding and balanced /unbalanced can make a huge difference.

the powersupply comment is a crucial one.the comment about current draw is a perceptive point.

as to noise,i have a powerpulsar and a pulsar1 with the plus(bal)i/o,dead silent.i have built a number of other systems and they don't suffer from the your problems.cw cards in my experience are EXCELLENT sound cards,i really haven't seen better,but they are very comprehensive in their functioning(they do a lot of things),and so are a little pickier than some others as to setup.....

outoftune · Post by **outoftune** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:17 am

Hey,

I'm reopening this one, because it might be close to what I'm experiencing:

Since I had to build a new computer, since the old one was damaged, I have ground noise, HDD noise and what not.

Can someone please elaborate on how to actually get rid of it?!

Thanks a lot
TIM

outoftune · Post by **outoftune** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:44 pm

Yes, I switched cases, due to the damage on the old one to a new steel 19" case so I could put it in my rack. The PSU is from "be silent" 600W and should be all good from the computer building point of view.

What I don't understand is how I could help the problem with the missing ground...

please help

edit: Oh, and the mainboard is a Gigabyte P35 DS4 and should be quite good (from a computing point of view) I used the copped screws to build it in and all. This is like computer number 30 I built from scratch and I never hab any problems like this. Hope its not all due to the case. Is there anything I can do to improve things ?!

edit2: It gets even stranger. Now that the DAW is switched off and all thats running is my laptop, I get noises when I press the mouse on the scroll bar of a window, although except for the monitor speakers and a small mixer NOTHING else is on

outoftune · Post by **outoftune** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:58 pm

finally. it was the mixer that was broken, rather than the CW board

Thank for helping me anyway...

TIM