All in all the ESI Maya44 eX isn't that bad. One thing that really makes it stand out is the price, which is really tempting. Having a pci interface removes the problem of latency while recording and it's nice to have an option that won't break your bank like RME or thunderbolt interfaces do.
There are a few cons to this card though:
1. under medium-heavy daw load the sound started to crackle and pop, and I had to increase the latency to make it stop.
2. it has very limited i/o options. Just 2 ins and 2 outs, the card gets crowded really quick.
3. as for the outs, here comes a deal breaker for me: they're both unbalanced. This has caused me more than a few problems since I had to rerout everything through a DI box and a reamp box to get rid of that annoying static hum you get because of EMI. Given that most cards in this price range and even below are equipped with balanced outs I don't know what stopped ESI from giving some love to this one too.
Apart from that, the ins are nice, the mic preamp functions well and the hi-z in for the guitar is more than adequate.
All in all, it's a compromise. It's good if you need to set up a recording environment quick and you want to cheap out on your soundcard.
