ESI MAYA44 eX 4-stars Reviews

Good Value, but poor RTL

PC - 12th Gen i7, Windows 11 22H2.

The ESI Website states that the Windows 10 Driver is tested and fully functional on Windows 11. While the installation wasn't seamless and required some troubleshooting, it now works as expected.

Most disappointing is the measured round trip latency. The card driver reports an incorrect latency to DAW applications which can give the false impressions that the RTL is very low.

The following results are using the Oblique Audio RTL utility:

At 48kHz - Buffer 128 samples = 11.8ms

At 48kHz - Buffer 64 samples = 9.1ms

At 48kHz - Buffer 48 Samples = 9.1ms

At 96kHz - Buffer 256 Samples = 8.4ms

At 96kHz - Buffer 128 samples = 5.8ms

At 96kHz - Buffer 64 samples = 4.4ms

At 96kHz - Buffer 48 Samples = 4.4ms

At lower sample rates, these values would be considered poor even for a budget USB audio interface. The redeeming factor is the performance at 96kHz and the fact that being PCIe, it is more stable than USB interfaces that I have tried at this higher sample rate.

Other than that, the audio quality is fine, the headphone output is good, and I can see that the DirectWIRE application will be of use to some.

I am pleased with the purchase and will continue to use this card over the USB interfaces that I have.