Most current audio applications need an audio card that will provide low latency along with ASIO support. While most currently sold motherboards come with 7.1 Integrated Audio chipsets, they don't provide the performance and flexibility that many professional users such as musicians or radio producers want, especially when the ASIO driver is an absolute must. Recently, USB audio cards have become very popular among users for their portability and flexibility being available for both the PC and MAC environments.

Today, we are going to review ESI's Maya44 USB sound card, a product that is "famous" for its performance/price ratio among enthusiast Audio producers.

- ESI Maya44 USB Sound card

The MAYA44 USB is the ideal external USB audio solution for your notebook or desktop computer. With a simple USB connection, the MAYA44USB instantly adds a high fidelity, multi-connection audio interface to your PC. The MAYA44 USB is equipped with 4 output channels (via 3.5mm RCA jacks) and 4 input channels (via 3.5mm RCA jacks) along with S/PDIF Optical Digital Outputs. Headphone output (combo jack with Optical output) is also included to complete this fully functional portable audio solution.

For DJs, the MAYA44 USB makes a great companion for ASIO based DJ software like BPM studio. The MAYA44 USB also plays back multiple tracks of audio from popular software synthesizers and samplers providing 4 individual outputs and inputs via the ASIO driver.

For Professional Musicians, like the original MAYA44 PCI card, the MAYA44 USB is the perfect match for music productions software like CUBASE, NUENDO, REACTOR, REASON, Sonar 2.2 and LOGIC.

The MAYA44 USB is the ideal portable audio solution for audiophiles, musicians, and DJs. MAYA 44USB's compact design and the USB connectivity lets you take your high-quality, multi-channel audio projects on the road as convenient as your desktop PC.

In its compact case, the MAYA44 USB provides 4 analog input and 4 analog output channels with RCA connectors and a combined optical S/PDIF digital output / stereo headphone output. With support for ASIO 2.0, CoreAudio and MME / WDM, the MAYA44 USB is compatible with all major music and DJ applications like Cubase, Logic, Sonar, Reason, Reaktor, MixVibes, Traktor DJ Studio, BPM Studio and many more.

- Features

• 4 input channels and 4 output channels with RCA connectors
• -10dBV input / output level (unbalanced)
• optical S/PDIF digital output with Miniplug connector
• headphone output (1/8" connector) with 60mW amplifier
• ASIO 2.0 and CoreAudio support (4 inputs / 4 outputs)
• MME / WDM support (2 inputs / 2 outputs)
• Standard USB connection to PC or Mac
• compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Mac OS X
• compatible with all major DJ software applications
• compatible with all major professional audio applications
• compact, portable and lightweight design

- Full specifications