E-mu Emulator Sampler User Forum for the EIII EII EI and EIII XP

any comments? i have an EIIIx, do you think the Emax II sounds quite different? better/worst?.

They use the same AD/DA converters and same filter chip as far as I know, so they don´t differ too much. But on the EIIIX you can choose higher sampling frequency. 

Imho the filters of both sounds different!

The EIIIX is loosing a lot of volume when the resonance increased.

The EmaxII didn´t do this.

Imho the EIIIX has slightly more resonance on the "top".

I couldn´t believe that the AD/DA converters are the same, because the sound of the EIIIX is far more better.
The EmaxII has a lot of "artefacts" and noise in his sound/output.
The EIIIX range was a high end sampler of it´s time!

And the EIIIX is the loudest sampler I´ve ever heard! After the original EIII.......

just my 4 euros :)

Christian

According to emulatorarchive both Emax II (stereo version) and EIIIX uses Crystal Semiconductor 5326 stereo ADC with 64 times oversampling Sigma/Delta and 8 Analog Devices AD1860 18 bit DAC's. But perhaps you refer to the early mono Emax II that was manufactured between 1989-90. That one uses a Crystal Semiconductor 5126 for sampling, without oversampling but with anti-aliasing filter instead. That can have an effect on the sound difference though.

In Keyboard Mag´s sampler test from 1994 both models are represented. The EIIIX has a wider bandwidth and it´s frequency response curve is slightly flatter. They also measured dynamic range and distorsion levels. On some areas the EIIIX shows better results than the Emax II but is worse on others but the difference is´nt too big.

I had two units of both, EIIIXP and EmaxII, here in 2011.

Both EmaxII were Stereo Units (2MB Stereo, and 8MB Turbo Stereo)!

After a lot of contact with Rob (Emulatorarchive) a few years ago, where he told me that the digital 24db filters of EIIIX and EmaxII would be exactly the same, I had the idea to test it.

And my result is, that the filters sounded different, and you can hear it simple!

And again, the EmaxII has a "lot" of noise coming from his outputs!
I don´t think that both EmaxII has the same faulty!

I  had changed everything, cables, output configuration, and so on.

But it was still the same, there was noise in case of the EmaxII.

The EIIIXP´s sounds far more better on the analog outputs!

IMHO this noise came from the power supply and found the way to the analog outputs!

I think that the best way to find the right decision for RECOIL is, buy an EmaxII and make a comparision!!!

We can talk and write again and again, but the only way for RECOIL is, to make his own decision.

My decision, after testing the EIIIXP and EmaxII was to sell the EmaxII.

By the way, after reading a lot of magazines the last 26 years, I found my own way for finding the right Sampler or Synthesizer: Don´t believe everything what they write!!!!

A simple example:
In the middle of the 90`s was a test about the EIV in the german Keyboard magazine.
Since the EmaxII all Emus had the possibility to transpose each sample +/- 5 octaves!

So I bought an EIV and during some resampling sessions for sound "design" I had noticed that samples couldn´t transpose up more than about 2 octaves!
At first, I thought the unit was faulty. So I was driven to one of the german emu service center.
But all the EIV who are there for repairing had this problem.

After that I made some tests and found "the problem":

Emu didn´t told that all samples which should be tranposed up more than 2 octaves must decreased in the sampling rate!

Decreasing the sampling rate -> increasing the upward trasnposition

Just for information 8)

Chris

greast story haha, i have an eiiixp wich i will test tonight, and had an eii that i sold to kris a couple of years ago (shame on me!)

Chris, I wonder...

> And my result is, that the filters sounded different, and you can hear it simple!
> And again, the EmaxII has a "lot" of noise coming from his outputs!

Filters and Outputs: Aren't you comparing apples to oranges?

Yes, I have compared apple to oranges, because the threadstarter asked for an EIIIx vs. Emax II sound comparison!!!!

Chris