hello! this is my first time posting here, and I was wondering which sound card I should buy as a replacement for my Creative Audigy card. the cards I am looking at are:
HT OMEGA CLARO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16829271002
Roland UA-4FX http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-4FX/specs.html
suggestions for other cards would also be appreciated, thank you!

(also Linux/BSD support is a must)

Here's my post about the UA-4FX. The device's advanced mode is supported with ALSA's latest GIT snapshot.

I have an M-Audio card that I listen to daily and can highly recommend.

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

M-Audio - Unix driver support

M-Audio 2496 Rightmark results (more ...)

Third party review of the M-Audio 2496

As well, there's an M-Audio USB device

M-Audio 192 - Excellent RMAA results.
or
ESI Juli@ - Also with excellent RMAA results.

These are two good cards for under $150 if you just looking for stereo (2channel) audio.

You will need some adapters for the m-audio card though since it's outputs are Balanced TSR jacks.

I'm about to pick up one of these Juli@'s to replace my Maudio.



**Little note about the Maudio 192, it's xp64 drivers lack support on computers with more then 4GBs of ram, VERY bad driver coding on their part. :/ Support said no ETA on this fix.


Cheers!

If gaming is a priority, this sound card gets very good reviews:

ASUS Xonar DX PCIe

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16829132006

PCI version

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16829132007


I own the Audiophile 2496 and love the audio quality. It is not great for gaming.