guest, feb 12, 5:24am sez: "PC soundcards can reach hifi levels but it takes some time and knowledge/experience with electronics to do it. It would be quite wrong to dismiss them."
I agree. And I agree with the person who said they liked the old on-board amp that some SB models used to have.
Unless you are really gonna set up a nice deal, the onbaord nowadays is fine.
another gripe I have is that I got tired of conflicting management of resources - the onboard sound settings would get kicked-in under certain circumstances, and sometimes making changes on the comp would have the comp default to the onboard, and change midi set-up, etc. Plus, if recording line-in or line-out, it is difficult either way to control interference from the rest of the comp - including emi as well as other crackles and buzzes.
I got tired of the hassle because I have not been doing any serious audio work.
I am abt to start ripping vinyl from a vinyl collection I have built up - at that point, I will have to figure out what really works.