I am looking for a PCI interface/sound-card which has an output for my headphones but at the same time an output for my monitors/speakers as well. In the ideal case it has good WDM drivers. Recommendations?

edit: ESI MAYA44 we just discovered, but alternatives are welcome
Last edited by WaveOnWave on Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:52 am; edited 2 times in total

A bit old, but the database on RecordingReview has some suggestions. Not nescessary with headphone output, that's not a seach criterium alas.
For sure not listed: http://www.esi-audio.com/products/maxio032e/

Hi Bert

Thanks, most gear listed in that database I am familiar with. Some of them come with some external piece of kit or box. I do not prefer that, I just want a single PCI card. I am afraid it is not there. Do you know anything about the quality of the Audiophile 2496 WDM drivers?

Shame you're set on PCI. Several products meet your criteria, however they're USB.

But there's no headphones output on the 2496

2496 is what i have but when needed i just use the headphone out on my monitors.I also have rca to female jack if i want to plug my headphones directly to the card.great interface though,very solid and it is nice and affordable too.

RME HDSP 9632. It's got separate headphone and monitors outputs. Also, you can find it rather cheap now second hand, or you can buy it new, of course. It's got rock solid any excellent performing driver, too. If I didn't opt for external ADDA and HDSP 9652, I'd buy this one. Brilliant all around card. Good converters. Great routing mixer. I love the DIGICheck app, it saves you money on analyser and metering plugins.

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdsp_9632.php

USB interfaces usually have bad latency, MIDI and audio both. That's why they're so cheap. There's nothing better than having a PCI or PCI-E card if you want great performance at low latencies.

Cheers!
Last edited by DuX on Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:18 am; edited 1 time in total

ESI MAYA44 also seems to do the trick
They claim there is a headphone output for monitoring but when I look at the pic I really wonder which output is for the headphone?

Read page 13 of http://www.esi-audiotechnik.com/download/ESI/MAYA44/MAYA44-E nglish.pdf
The outputs are stereo on each connector. One for the headphone, another with y-split cable for the monitors.

NB: having the headphone out on the back of your PC case seems a bit awkward for me.

All outputs are indeed highly configurable

As an alternative you might consider running the stereo outs thru a passive monitor controller like the M-Patch 2. It has a seperate headphones output (which is amplified). I've been using it for many years and am very pleased with it.

This is good stuff. Especially if you care about the audio quality, since this controls the volume with an analog pot, there's no loss of resolution especially when listening to 16-bit audio. There is a similar solution from TC Electronic, smaller and about 99$.



The only thing is if he needs direct monitoring on the headphones, then he can only have it with a PCI card with a separate output. That's why RME has it, essentially, even though yes - it seems awkward having a headphone output from the PCI card.
Last edited by DuX on Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:08 am; edited 2 times in total

thanks but I do not want an extra box, I want my desktop to be as clean as possible

For me it is ideal to have my headphone on the back of my computer.

edit: correction, this is indeed a good solution.