🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm sold on getting a new card for this computer. I don't doubt that you can hear a difference between lo-fi and hi-fi sound cards, and I'm not arguing your point, which is well-taken. However, just an observation that there are other factors that probably have a much greater impact on the quality of the final product than incremental improvements in digital audio hardware - such as microphone quality, recording technique, and old-fashioned musicianship.

As for TB, I'm certainly not defending their current products, but for the record, that company in its original form was known for high-end recording quality audio (much better than Creative Labs) at affordable prices. They had a good early two-track digital editor, and even pioneered one of the first affordable multi-track software programs for Windows - a clever and intuitive program called Quad. TB was acquired by Voyetra, which apparently had a different business model and focused on a different market. Some of the older products had and still have impressive sound quality. Not necessarily state of the art by today's standards - but again, I wonder how many people can really hear a difference...