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When I built my home theater system 2 years ago, I decided to invest in a professional audio card.
[For example, after reading buyers reviews and critics, I settled on the Terratec phase 28. http://audioen.terratec.net/modules.php?op=modload &name=News&file=article&sid=7 ]

Its output is directly connected to my Hi-Fi amplifier (no pre-amp).

The only thing to be careful about with such a setup is to not shut down your PC (reset/reboot is fine) while your amp is still on.

Investing in a high grade sound card is the same as investing in a good amplifier or speakers : you are likely to use it for a long time (unlike a graphics card for example).

I myself have the biggest 2.0 speakers of labtec (didn't see those in store, but seem to be still made), but the best ones I've seen in the store lately is this set from terratec, it blew me away! Both these sets are 20 bucks each, so pretty affordable.

On a similar note, a family member recently bought a surround dvd player set, and didn't find a real option to turn the subwoofer off! Living in a small house, with neighbours at all sides, and sometimes just not being in the mood for a lot of bass, this pretty much sucks. Always check for a seperate knob for the subwoofer if you are destined to buy surround stuff.

There's also the Terratec Noxon, which can play mp3s from a server in the (W)LAN or directly from teh intarweb. It's ugly as hell, and the display really sucks - but the sound quality is not bad.

A firewire device for musicians. What a great idea. That's Apple for you, always on the forefront of new technology.

All these fancy formats: 192kHz, 24 bits, everything is perfect, until you plug your DVD-A, SACD player to your stereo, that has a 44kHz, 16 bit DSP for equalizing sound...

Of course, the original SliMP3 doesn't fit well to hifi components either. But I just liked its look better. Matter of taste, I guess :)

Yes, I like the Audiotron too. I look really good, a simple and clean front. Terratec has a nice one as well, the Digital Radio DR 1000. (They had an even cuter one some time ago, the Terratec M3Po)

Unfortunately not only are they testing the audio chipsets, they're also testing the analog sections on the respective motherboards, which has the potential to screw up the sound much, much more than the sound chip ever dreamed.

I was shocked at the poor noise floor and stereo separation of the VIA Envy24PT chip - its older brother, the Envy24, has been used in pro and semipro audio I/O cards from the likes of M-Audio and Terratec. I believe the problem is due to the signal jungle that is a modern motherboard.

I'm a little dismayed at their lack of a recommendation for the Envy24PT - it performed very well in the audio tests and continually had the least CPU usage. Software bells and whistles are useless -- it's the sound that matters in the end. In any case, pardon the grumblings of an Envy24 fanboy.

But this thing looks like shit. Same as the Rio Central. The only one of these which looks good is TerraTec's M3Po. It looks nice. I wouldn't want one of the others in my room..

Computers and general-purpose computer peripheral devices are not covered by the Audio Home Recording Act. This means they do not pay royalties and they do not incorporate technology to prevent serial copying.

In refrence to the 'serial copying' thing, I'm assuming the RIAA is refering to these clauses from the actual document: No person shall import, manufacture, or distribute any digital audio recording device or digital audio interface device that does not conform to-- (1) the Serial Copy Management System; and No person shall import, manufacture, or distribute any device, or offer or perform any service, the primary purpose or effect of which is to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or otherwise circumvent any program or circuit which implements, in whole or in part, a system described in subsection
Ok, so what the act says here is that you can't build ro import a device that doesn't conform to SCMS and you can't build a device that is made to remove SCMS. WEll guess what? This part of the bill must have been overturned. Here is a device that, in addition to converting digital formats, will set the SCMS bits to whatever you want. And here is a soundcard that will let you manually control your SCMS settings. I can list a whole bunch more devices that fall in the same category, but I think the point is made: Perhaps when the act was first passed, devices had to comply with SCMS, now they don't.