[cameronl]

hi there, I am about to buy the RME 9632 sound card to use as a high end sound card for stereo. With just the basic card, can I output 2 different sounds at the same time or do I need the add on board for this?


thanks for your time.


CaM

 

[thomaspf]

Sorry no answer, but since you have looked at this card. Does it have a relais that protects your amp and speakers from pops when the machine boots?


Cheers


Thomas

 

[FoMatt]

According to RME web site, the 9632 features "Speaker Protection minimizes noise during power on/off". After replacing a delta 410 with the 9632, I left my active monitors on while turning my PC on/off and the resulting crashing/thumping noise was so loud I thought I'd killed my monitors (no harm done, but a big scare). Actually it was much louder than with the 410. Maybe there's something to do to activate the speaker protection, I've asked the question to RME support, will let you know.

That's my only complaint with the card so far which I find close to perfection otherwise. Sound is crystal clear and drivers are rock solid. Used PowerDvd 5, Foobar and Synapse Audio's Orion, everything worked fine and there's a definite improvement in sound quality (at least with my monitors).

Not sure it is worth it if the rest of your gear is not on par.

 

[FoMatt]

To answer Blake's question, you will need the daughter card to output 2 stereos streams to 2 pairs of speakers.

Eventually with TotalMix, you can mix the 2 streams on to your left and right speakers (or headphones), for example 1 stereo pair to the left channel and another to the right, but I doubt that's what you had in mind.

 

[FoMatt]

Contrarily to what has been written many times on this forum (probably from posters having been misled by RME's website), the HDSP9632 has NO speaker protection on speaker outputs. According to RME support, there is a protection but it does only work on the phones output, not on the speakers outputs.

The statement on their website is deceiving which is kind of disappointing from a company like RME. Anyway, the myth is now dispelled...