Customer Reviews
Excellent product unless you run MacOS X 10.5 Panther 
2008-02-13
I bought this product a few months ago from another retailer. I use it with a MacBook 2ghz, 2GB RAM, blah blah blah. When I ran MacOS 10.4 Panther it worked great. The audio quality is excellent *IF* your source inputs are clean. By that I mean, if you're using a high quality microphone with XLR inputs you will get a very clean sound. I've also used it with a Martin D16RT acoustic guitar with builtin mic and a Taylor 812ce with builtin pickup and - again - it recorded extremely clean audio. The product works as advertised.
But, as of February 12th 2008, if you're running MacOS X 10.5 Leopard it doesn't work. I can't start standard audio applications like Garageband, they just crash. You'll have to remove the EMU driver to get the system back to normal too. Took me several hours to figure dig through the issue and determine the cause.
I hope EMU provides a driver update for 10.5 in the near future. But CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY if you're running Leopard.
Just what I wanted 
2008-01-25
The Emu 404 was just what I wanted. While it is obviously not professional quality sound, it is perfect for home recording. My one suggestion is don't skimp on a mic. the better the mic the more you'll get out of this interface.
Doesn't get better than this for the price 2008-01-11
I have to say, EMu has really put out some fantastic products in the past few years. I have two 1212Ms and they are stellar. So, I decided to use this for some simple audio processing and then tossed my ekit through it. The sound is very clean, and the timbre seems true, maybe slightly forgiving. I don't credit the DACs as so many seem to do. I believe the preamps in this unit are the real story. As for durability of the case, well, it's plastic, some composite that seems quite durable actually; only time will tell.
Good Product - medium footprint 2008-01-02
I purchased this when I found out that the Steinburg MIDEX-8 would not work with Intel Macs after I purchased a Mac Pro (Steinburg discontinued support for the MIDEX-8 in 2003). I was really looking for a MIDI interface but this unit also provides me with guitar and microphone inputs which is a bonus. In the past I have had to mess with a PCI card for audio input into my Mac. This can get messy. I like the front access.
After searching for this type of product I found that there are MANY to choose from so the issue was how to decide on which one to purchase.
One of the factors for me was the MAC/PC connection method. Available interfaces include USB 1.1, USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800. Firewire 800 would be great because the greater bandwidth should produce the lowest latency (in theory). Of course extra bandwidth costs extra money. Based on pricing I elected to go for USB 2.0. The firewire units go up by a quantum leap in price ($500 and up). I was trying to stay around $200.So far I have not found the USB 2.0 interface to be a problem. I would not bother with USB 1.1.
The other factor was power. Since USB has a limited current capacity I did not want a unit that relied on existing USB power because I did not want my audio levels to be low (e.g., headphone output). I therefore looked for a unit that requires external power. I understand that some people would prefer portability but this is not a factor for me. I use this device in my home studio only.
Checking Amazon's price and this and other product reviews I decided to puchase this device and so far I am very pleased with it. I do not notice any latency and it works just fine with Cubase 4.0 and Garage Band. I expect it will also work with BIAB. I also liked the feedback that mentioned the high quality of the DACS.
I think this will handle my needs for now. I miss the 8 MIDI in and 8 MIDI out of the MIDEX-8 but I can use MIDI thru on the e-mu product. I would prefer a smaller footprint (like the Focusrite Saffire - firewire) however I can also live with that for less than $200.
A dissapointing unit from E-mu 
2007-12-16
I'm a bit of an audiophile. My desktop PC has an E-mu 1820M which I love, so I'm not biased at all against the company (quite the opposite), but the 0404 USB is a big disappointment.
My unit has real problems turning on. If I flip the power switch often only the "Power On" indicator will light, and the PC will report a problem connecting the device. I may have to turn it off and on again half a dozen times before the rest of the lights flash and it actually connects to the PC. The same power-up symptoms happen whether or not it's actually connected to the PC, so I know it's a problem with the 0404.
Once it's up and running it's pretty decent, except that periodically I'll do something on my laptop that causes the audio to blip. It may be as simple as loading a web page. I have a high-powered dual core laptop, this shouldn't happen. I ran some low-level performance monitoring tools from Microsoft and found that on occasions rediculous amounts of time are spent in the USB driver while the 0404 is running, and just playing CD quality audio (stereo, 44.1Khz, 16-bit) causes deferred procedure calls (DPC's) to consume 12-20% CPU time. The unit is connected to a USB 2 port, so there is no bandwidth problem.
I've tried various versions of E-mu's drivers and firmware and currently none are any better than the others with regards to these issues.
I bought the 0404 because the on-board audio I/O panel on my laptop stopped working properly (faulty headphone jack) and it's working okay for general audio purposes, but if I had the opportunity to choose again, I'd buy something else.
Incredible quality at a bargain price 2007-12-10
The E-MU's 0404 USB 2.0 Audio/MIDI Interface delivers an unparalleled level of audio performance to your PC with premium 24-bit/192kHz A/D and D/A converters, pristine XTC mic/line/hi-Z preamps, ultra-low jitter clock and rock-solid stability. From its plug-and-play functionality and hands-on ergonomic design to professional features and signal-to-noise specs that are simply unmatched by any other USB interface on the market, the 0404 USB will forever change your expectations of USB audio. The 0404 USB also ships with the E-MU Production Tools Software Bundle that includes E-MU's Proteus VX, as well as software by Cakewalk, Steinberg, Ableton, IK Multimedia, and many more - everything you need to create, record, edit and master your music. Premium 24-bit/192kHz A/D and D/A converters (A/D: 113dB SNR, D/A: 117dB SNR) deliver unmatched USB audio fidelity E-MU XTC Class-A ultra-low noise Mic/Line/Hi-Z preamplifiers (-127dB EIN) with 48V phantom power and ground lift switches enable you to plug microphones, keyboards and guitars straight into your computer with professional results, while the built-in analog soft limiting circuit lets you record a hotter signal without fear of clipping Comprehensive digital I/O with optical and coaxial S/PDIF (switchable to AES/EBU) and MIDI In/Out to easily connect all of your digital studio gear and instruments Ultra-low latency Windows XP and x64 USB 2.0 drivers offer accurate timing and playback of your recorded audio and...
Great starting point for a budding audiophile 2007-11-08
This is my first soundcard purchase that is not an internal Audigy. I'm impressed! There is absolutely no noise interference (with my internal, I would sometimes hear the crunching of my harddrive through the speakers). The driver works fine on Windows XP x64, which is a miracle. The built-in headphone amp powers my new headphones beautifully. For the price, this is the best deal you can get for your first step into aural bliss.
Very nice 2007-08-30
Awesome latency as low as 2 or 3 ms. Can plug in my electric guitar and use a sowftware amp, can plug in my MIDI keyboard of course and microphones. Only downside to this, it has to have an external power source, so using it for portablity with your laptop isn't so great. Oh and windows Vista driver is due out in late 2007... Don't think I really needed this quality for what I use it for, but I say it was worth it just to be able to play my guitar onto my computer.
Decent, but better options available 2007-08-13
I was quite excited about getting this sound card. At first I was a little concerned about using a USB 2.0 interface (versus a firewire interface) and I must say that I'm still not convinced that USB 2.0 is stable enough to support a real time / ASIO audio device. The pre-amps on the 0404 are very nice, very clear and transparent. The gain isn't very smooth though, and tends to "jump" quite quickly. If I worked for excessive periods in ASIO mode it began to click and pop a lot and sometimes the LED meter would freeze for no reason. Occasionally it would stop working all together and I'd have to restart it and the program(s) I was using. Support is a little less than spectacular, with (at the time I had it) no real driver or firmware updates. It comes packaged with some handy audio tools, programs and plugins.
Overall, really liked it at first but quickly grew annoyed at it's inconsistent and erratic behaviour. Decent for a beginner or not so demanding user but if you intend to get serious there are much better options available for a similar price.
E-MU USB interface 2007-07-29
Great product. 10ms latency. Not noticable. The sound is very clean, no noise. Works compleatly as advertised. The 3rd party software doesn't work. Amplitube LE didn't work and Cubase LE didn't even recognize the copyguard code. Don't expect to get anything out of the included software. But the ASIO drivers work great for this product.
