My experience with M-Audio Delta 1010Lt.
I bought it used from recording studio of my friend. I wanted good soundcard for home recording, and 2 channel cards didn’t match my requirements. I wanted to record drummer, 2 guitars, vocals and so on.
First of all, I was impressed by sounding of this Delta 1010 LT device even in recording studio of my friend when we were recording our first band demo. I liked how bass guitar Warwick 5-string and bass drum Tama sounded even without mixing and mastering. That means great possibilities for home recording are here. But than I fund out that M-Audio Delta 1010LT is very nice playing device. It has very good sound. I tested it in compare with M-Audio Fast Track, M-Audio Audiophile 2496, ESI Juli@ and M-Audio-Fast Track Pro. And! Only Juli@ played better.
Very interesting thing, that we were comparing sound of Fast track Pro and Delta 1010Lt, and no one in the room liked sound of Fast track Pro (about 320$ sound card) after playing test CD on Delta 1010LT. It is real truth, because usually me and my friends have very different tastes on sound, and arguing. And honestly, we were expecting more from Fast track Pro because in our view it was more cool and modern card. Delta 1010LT is kinda old device.
Very important thing, that Delta 1010Lt has some potential for modding. Stock op-amps are 4558 JRC and they are very cheap. It means that no very big sense to put before them hi-end mic or instrumental preamp. It is sad. Everyone should remember this. It is kinda gold rule: whole sound chain must be the same level. For example, if you have mic for 80$ and put it into 3500$ rack preamp with cable for 2$, it is really ineffective. The same works here for inside chips.
Some folk made this cheap op-amps JRC 4558 (about 1.5$ price) out of Delta 1010Lt and soldered 20-25$ op-amps (don’t remember exact models) and sound improved fantastically.
5 years passed and I am very satisfied with M-Audio Delta 1010LT.
Funny thing that this sound card doesn’t go cheaper on second-hand sales. It is very good. The only option disappointing me is SPDIF. It is real crap. But I never seriously needed it. Only for test.
