Product: M-Audio Sonica
Price Paid: US $0 (free with Reason)
Submitted
01/19/2004
at
10:01am
by
the mensch
Ease of Use
:
8
Easy - install the drivers and plug it in. It would be a 10, but you have to go into the m-audio service to turn off their processing crap to make it sound okay. YMMV, but I didn't like the simulated surround or bass boost.
Features
:
8
It has an analog out and an optical port. That's it. You get what you pay for. I do wish the thing had a volume control.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
8
Sounds fine to me! I run it through a stereo for monitoring purposes, and since it can handle 24/96, it sounds great - for the price.
Reliability
:
8
The only problem I had with this, albiet major, was that it will crash a win2k system if you run it through a usb hub. So I wouldn't be able to use it live - not that I ever would anyway. On an xp system, it's been flawless.
Customer Support
:
6
M-audio's pretty good about returning email, but it seems their technical people are quite limited in their troubleshooting abilities.
Overall Rating
:
7
It sure beats the heck out of an onboard soundcard, but I don't consider it a professional piece of equipment by any means. Since I got it for free with Reason, it's been more than I expected, but I would replace it (in fact, WILL replace it) with something a little more featureful. And I agree, ASIO would have been nice.
Product: M-Audio Sonica
Price Paid: 70 (GBP)
Submitted
01/27/2003
at
05:01am
by
Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
10
Very easy, just plug it in your usb port. Works great under os X and os 9.2
Features
:
7
ASIO would have been a plus.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
8
Thick and loads of dynamics using the Digital out under Live and reason 2 (os x 10.2)
Reliability
:
10
Seems very reliable to me.
Customer Support
:
8
M-Audio's web site is full of update for drivers...
Overall Rating
:
8
Very good overall for the price paid !
Shame about asio's, as you cannot use it with vst under os 9.x
Product: M-Audio Sonica
Price Paid: US $80.00
Submitted
10/23/2002
at
10:58am
by
Heri Acosta
Email: heriacosta at hotmail<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
Clear well defined sound, much better than the laptops internal sound. when tested with Reason, ads definition and detail to synths and overal more punchiness to drums.
Not ASIO but much faster the the internal sound.
24 bit 96Khz audio output both d/a and a/d
on PC's to be used with the MME/DirectX drivers.
Features
:
No Opinion
analog stereo out
digital out
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
No Opinion
sound. when tested with Reason, ads definition and detail to synths and overal more punchiness to drums.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
on PC's to be used with the MME/DirectX drivers.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
9
