Upgraded From E-MU 0404 to Tascam FW-1082. Why did the E-MU Sound Better?

[CRSO]

Mostly on the headphone side. The E-Mu's really powered my headphones with a "punch" and the Tascam seems as if it's underpowering them.

Is there a setting I am overlooking?

I run a Thinkpad T61P 7,200 HDD 4GB RAM with a 6-Pin PCMCIA FW Card.

[thx1138]

I don't really get it... you think they are better because they are louder?
As far as I know the Emus have excellent converters and that's why they sound better but not louder.

[CRSO]

I'm an audiophile so no, I don't mean louder is better. Headphones should be able to produce a good clean sound and when played loud, they should still maintain clarity. This is not the case with the Tascam. I have a pair of AKG701's and Ultrasone 750's that sounded 100% better on the E-Mu than the Tascam (I also have Grado 325's and countless other top end headphones).

It's odd... My Dynaudio BM Monitors sound fine but it's just the headphones.

Are the converters just better on the E-MU 0404 or something?

[vcovco]

E-mu makes some excellent stuff. Don't think that your audio will sound better just by switching to a more expensive unit. Have not heard the 0404 but I've owned an E-mu 1616m and I think the 1616m sounds better than most stuff out there at less than half the price.

Unfortunately, the company lives in the shadow of creative labs and they seem to have lost touch with their user base.

Probably difference in the headphone amp circuitry. I had looked at the fw-1082 but could not find any s/n specs, so I never bothered with it. Try running both into a separate mixer using same headphone amp and a/b the two.