Accessories

The song remains the same. No Vista drivers available
This card used to be a nice one. I boght it four years a go (it was $300 then) and drivers used to be updated in a timely manner. Appart for the limited connection options, it did its job.

They have been selling a lot since but, despite this fact, M-Audio hasn't been motivated enough to develop Vista drivers (specially those 64 bit ones) They report having started (very late) a beta testing program, where you can sign in but never are given the option to join them actually and get the beta driver, as far as I know. A public release was promised for September, 1st but nothing to do. Delays and more delays with complete lack of transparence.

In the end I am leaving on the table this M-Audio 2496 Audiophile besides my Mackie Spike (lacking Vista 64 support as well) I'm now going out for a Focusrite Saffire. I'll let you know...

Perfect for last gen. operatign systems
This is THE perfect sound card for budget musicians wanting to record their own music. I use it with microphones, guitars and electronic drum sample triggering (all affected in real-time) with no hiccups. Could not ask for more features EXCEPT: that it worked on current operating systems. I've had to downgrade to Windows XP to use this sound card. How's that? That's why this product gets a 3/5 for me.

M-Audio claim that the Vista 64 bit driver will be released before the 1st of September. Unless the driver hits the internet today - they're liars and regardless of if they do or don't they've been ridiculously slow in providing a driver for an operating system that's been the standard for years.

Do not buy this if you want to have a 64 bit OS to utilise the current processors available - wait for the drivers or find an alternative sound card.

works great
So I got this card to rip my records at 24 bit 96 hertz. It works like a champ! Very nice sound, the bass is killer! It was easy to set up and had great info to help me get started. I am very happy with this purchase.

TMink

Past its prime...
The first thing that should stand out to you is the user manual's setup instructions for Windows 98 users. This was probably a great soundcard back in those days, but it just doesn't measure up today.

I bought this card for it's MIDI capabilities, which it performs exceptionally well, but the card is easily overloaded by heavy onscreen graphics resulting in stutters, skips, and pops. When I'm not using this card for MIDI, I have to disable it and use the integrated soundcard that came with my system.

This is a decent card for the price if you need MIDI ports, but if you're going to use this for gaming or even watching visualizations with Windows Media Player or Winamp, you should steer clear.

For the record, my system specs are:
Dell XPS 410
Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit
2.40GHz Dual Core
2 GB RAM

Product has compatibility issue
I purchased this sound card in hope of getting better sound quality from my PC, after reading several favorable reviews on Amazon.

Unfortunately, I should have paid more attention to the negative comments mentioned by a few reviewers. First of all, it's true that M-Audio did not include a software driver for the card in the package. This is either sloppy or lacking any sense of customer satisfaction. You need to go to the website to download the XP driver. Secondly, the card simply did not work properly on my computer; the sound was staticky and wobbly, as if the sound card was unable to lock at the correct frequency. Running any application when playing music cause the sound to deteriorate further. This did not help after I disabled hardware acceleration and all other potentially interfering drivers as recommended in the manual. After spending 2 days trouble-shooting the problems, i realized that a good product should not require its users to go through so much troubles.

I don't know how a company can ship an technically inferior product like this and hope to achieve commercial success. I returned the card to Amazon and will not consider ever purchasing another M-Audio sound card.