Topic: Need PC Audio Card Recomendations....

[arawak420]

i need to get a new audio card as this dell stock one is a joke. im running a HD unit and i upload all of my recordings through the usb on the front of my pc straight into soundforge7.  i dont need all the midi stuff although rca in/out would be nice for sound playback.

i've heard the audiophile 24/96 is nice,but im not transfering dats. would this card still be a good getter?

[hzgone]

go with the 2496, never had one single problem with it and you can pick them up pretty cheap off ebay

[dnsacks]

what are you looking for the card to do -- bit-perfect digital out playback, or just nice sounding analog?

I've been VERY impressed with the Chaintech AV710, which runs a whopping $25 from newegg, etc.  It is built around the via envy 24PT chipset (used by many more expensive cards) and, for 2 channel analog playback has the ability to pass the analog through a burr-brown d>a which is supposed to sound Great.  Digitally, there are some firmware swaps available from places like headfi.org that will enable it to mimic far more expensive cards and pass bit-perfect digital output (optical only, unfortunately) via asio drivers.

At a minimum, worth checking out if you're looking for a nice sounding analog out solution and/or can work with optical digital. 

Otherwise, the audiophile 2496 is a known solution . . . .

[F0CKER]

keep in mind the audiophile 2496 is only bit perfect when using ASIO drivers.