I'm sorry to start another thread on this topic, as I know there are already several, but none of them ask the questions I've got.

I'm in the market for a sound card to replace my onboard Realtek piece of crap, and I'm using Windows XP Media Centre Edition. Here's where I seem to be different from everyone else. I'm looking for something that does great stereo, and is capable of handling DVD audio, ie 192khz. I have no interest in surround sound, since I don't have a surround sound system and I never watch movies or play games. I'm ONLY interested in the best possible music playback. (Recording ability is secondary as well.) Ideally, what I'm looking for would have RCA outputs, since I'm not planning on going the external DAC route unless necessary, and my amp is an older Pioneer A8 that is strictly analog. I never listen to MP3s, and I consider myself an audiophile, albeit one with little money. My sources are either FLAC, CD audio, WAV files, and hopefully DVD audio if I can find a sound card that will let me go that route.

The two I'm leaning towards from reading over this forum:

ESI Juli@ - primarily because it has RCA outs, but the focus seems to be more on recording than playback
E-MU 0404 - less money and better reviews, but the outputs seem to be either digital or 1/4" analog, which I'm assuming would be balanced, and therefore useless to me. Am I wrong about this?

It seems to me that the higher quality the card, the less support for analog, and the bigger the focus on recording ability. The Juli@ is the only one I've found that even has RCA outs! Is this just a pipe dream, or does something actually exist that will do what I'm looking for?

You can get adapters very easily.
DVD-Audio has copy protections that prevent playback at full resolution on PC. (Except on a few soundcards which aren't good enough to recommend.)

Really? I didn't know that! So am I better off forgetting about the 192khz capability and finding one that fits my other requirements better?

If that's the case, what about the Chaintech AV-710? You can't really beat that price...

0404 is not balanced. You can convert to RCA by using a simple cable. I highly recommend this one =) 0404 has very good RMAA measures and some goodies if you are interested in recording.

You might be interested in doing some (blind) listening tests! Lossy compression nowadays is very good, no need to ignore it altogether - just give it a try, you might be surprised ;-)

Well, as for 192k... nobody really needs it, there's a thread here on HA about how rates above 44.1 are 'better'... it's 10+ pages long and yet no good answer DVD-A is just a business move to shove DRM to the customer - you might get some albums with a better mastering on DVD-A than on CD, however, but that's not because of the 'superior 192k quality'.

Hmmm, interesting. Thanks for the information! I'll soak up whatever you guys throw at me!

I was similarly impressed with the specs for the 0404, it was just the outputs that threw me off. Glad to hear they're not balanced and an adapter will do the trick! Given that, I think I'm leaning towards the E-MU now...

The 0404 is considerably better.

Yeah, that's what I figured... I think I'm going to end up going with the 0404 then. Thanks for all your help guys!!

Now I just have to wait for my tax refund to get here....

Even when the output is balanced, the correct, extremely common, cables will make a seamless match to any unbalanced HIFi input.

You shouldn't count on DVD-Audio being copy protected. I'm sure methods will be devised to play it or rip it and play on-the-fly at full resolution.

I've been looking for a better USB card to do needle drops with. Right now I am using an external SB Live 24bit. I use the analog outputs on my receiver (it has no digital outputs) and the line-in on the SB card which is connected to my laptop. Would the E-MU 0404 allow me to do the same, or is this card overkill for needledrops. Thanks in advance.