PC-AUR44 Auricon 4.4 PCIe Analog Sound Card

The Auricon 4.4 is a professional PCIe analog sound card with 4 stereo inputs and 4 stereo outputs. The inputs and outputs can be reconfigured as separate mono channels, providing eight inputs and outputs.

It comes with a Windows WDM driver to ensure full sound card functionality under Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, Windows 7, Server 2008R2, Windows 8 and Server 2012.

The card uses 24-bit 192kHz sigma-delta converters that transfer data to and from the PC via a single-lane PCI Express interface. An integrated FPGA provides audio buffering, level adjustment and mixing functions. Hardware sampling rates of 48kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz are available, with the Windows sample rate converter transparently providing support for other frequencies. The card supports extended bit depths up to 32 bits, and software sampling rate and bit depth (32, 24, 16 or 8 bit PCM) can be set independently for each input and output channel.

Windows Wave, DirectSound and DirectShow APIs are supported, along with a variety of audio compression modes via the Windows Audio Compression Manager or other software compression systems. On Windows Vista/Server 2008 and later systems, the Core Audio API is also fully supported.

There are four configuration settings for the Auricon 4.4, namely Mode (stereo/mono), hardware sampling rate, input coupling and nominal line level. The mode can be configured as stereo or mono. In mono mode, the number of input and output channels that Windows sees is doubled. The nominal line level can be set to +8dBu, +4dBu or 0dBu. In each case, the clipping level is 16dB above the nominal level. Input coupling can be set to DC or AC (defaulting to AC).

The playback topology includes a master output level, mute control and peak meter, as well as input monitoring level controls and mutes for each of the line inputs. The recording topology includes a master input level, mute control and peak meter, as well as level controls and mutes for the physical input and digital loopback. Digital loopback allows the card's output to be digitally mixed into the input. The range of the master input and output controls is from -96dB to +6dB, while individual line controls range from -96dB to 0dB.

Multiple cards can be installed in the same PC.

An optional 44-pin high-density D-sub to XLR breakout cable is available.