A question asked many times is what sound card is good, sounds good, and supports -real- 24bit, and is not very expensive.

Here's a very nice answer. 3 versions (lowest price one doesn't support 24bit)
Read the specs, seems very nice.

This! is what I think is sexy

Definately sexy, but has a sexy price too
It's a great card for the price as well.. But not a consumer price at all, this is for those who requier all the pro features and stuff, not just sound quality.

What is the price?

It looks like a fantastic computer to home stereo interface but all the mic inputs must add to the price for sure.

I would love to see/hear a scaled down version of this. The reviews of the motorola processors this thing uses are impressive.

This is just the thing I am looking for.

I think you can get it for as low as 750$ or maybe less.
And you can get Echo Audio Gina for around 350$.

And, the Terratec Aureon cards from low to high: 40 euros, 130 euros, 180 euros (list prices).

The Aureon Fun is AC97 and seems to resample to either 44.1 or 48 kHz (AC97 system, and 44.1-48 digital out).
The specifications of the two others are necessarily wrong, since they specify both up to 48 kHz 16 bits, and 96kHz digital recording.

The maximum sample rate is either 48 kHz or 96 kHz, not both !

The Aureon uses the newer Envy24HT according to a VIA rep I spoke to. It looks like it's going to be the card to watch. It's supposed to be coming out December. The Egosys Waveterminal 192L and Audiotrak Prodigy192 uses the same chip and has gotten lukewarm results, but I trust Terratec to come out with a quality part.

Envy24HT info:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/multimedia/envy24ht.jsp

Digit-Life Prodigy 192 review:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sound/...prodigy192.html

C't Waveterminal 192L review:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....hl=waveterminal

About those maximum sample rates, according to the site the Fun goes upto 48khz, the other two go upto 96khz for recording and 192khz for playback. I can't find the quote you gave on the site, so it probably was a typo on their part that has been fixed since then or is only present in one language.

What is important is not the Envy chip, which is just a DSP, but the ADC/DAC chip(s).

http://www.midiman.com/products/consumer/r...ution_page1.php

Revo seems to be a competitor to the Aureon Sky/Space cards. Same Envy24HT sound DSP, and uses AKM codecs for DAC/ADC.