If someone is dealing with analog or auxilary computer technology, the best bet would be to think small.
I know that stereo seems to get in the way of a sound when it is a matter of just plugging an instrument into a mic or line-in jack.
I use stereo to make the sound fuller with the individual tracks that make up a song.
But having an mp3/wave setup, I switch the final track back to mono.
And I like the sound not to get lost with less of a speaker setup.
But programs like Reason or cakewalk is a different method.
A 4 or 8 track analog recording device may cut it as well as simply plugging in through a computer sound card and going through wave.
But everything now is geared for a computer.
Unless there is the most pristine recording enviroment for that analog recording, the sound faults all hang out when recorded digitally.

I have been thinking that as soon as my PC goes kapootz that I will switch to a Mac.
I have bought just PC's so far because I usually do not have the amount of money all at one time I would pay for a Mac.
But come hell or high water, I am going to save up for the Mac next time.
It may be considered hype that it is a computer for the artist.
But everyone I know of that has a Mac has it for a very, very long time.

http://www.f3music.com/444