Originally Posted by Ray E. Strode

Anyone here tested replacement sound cards for performance? Any Test Results you have read? In the old days all sorts of electronic equipment was tested and the results published in Audio Magazines. But, I say again, what your computer most likely will do all that you need. Of course if you need more than one imput an outboard devise is OK. Remember, the more things you have in the signal chain, the more something can go wrong.


Ray - as Jim has already pointed out, built in soundcards are often very poor and have been getting worse over the years as manufacturer's realise that very few people care about sound quality. You're lucky if you get a signal to noise ratio of 50dB from a built-in mic input whereas external card manage much better. You also won't get proper phantom power from a built-in mic input. The drivers are also inefficient which means that the signal can take anything from 20-100mS to pass through the driver and into the recording software. Decent soundcards will get this down to less than 5mS.

If you want to read some reviews then take a look at Martin Walker's reviews for Sound On Sound magazine at

http://www.soundonsound.com

or Arny Kruger's reviews at

http://www.pcavtech.com

(although it isn't working for me right now).

James.

James Perrett, JRP Music http://www.jrpmusic.net

Della Perrett's Sweetedge http://www.sweetedge.com