Well then, we can aggree to the fact that there are some that are worse, and some that are better than mp3..

I have a project now of taking cassette tapes and coping them to CDs. The way i'd like to do it would be through my comp. encoded, edited and burned, since they're recordings of meetings, i'll have to go throught and cut parts out, before the finished product. I'll need to have good sound quality. The quality of the recordings aren't the best, but you can still hear what needs to be.

It was a little difficult tracking with what was said on the first page, but it seems I'll need a new sound card and tape deck. I'm going to look into a tape deck over the next few weeks, and for the sound card a few were listed on the first page but it was too much data for me to think with. What would be the best card to get without having to pay an arm and a leg to get it? Creative was said to have good features but poor quality, which other brands should I look at? I have good quality cables and sony soundforge, so they won't be a problem, budget isn't a issue ether, it just has to be cost effective.

Creative's X-Fi Elite Pro seems pretty good(On the digital side, the analog amplifying stages seem pretty cheesy) , but it costs a lot of money. It's the only 24/192 card I saw that doesn't have a codec, but uses separate DACs and ADCs instead. That's a big ++, as long as your hardware is compatible with the card. (Has some issues with some hardware)

If you look at other cards, M-Audio's Audiophile 192 seems good.