On 22/03/11 10:11, Chris G wrote:
While I'm about it are some sound cards/hardware known to be better than others for quality, noise levels, etc.?
Well generalising a bit but most often external usb sound adaptors will sound better than most internal soundcards. Then if you really cared you would power the USB adaptor from a nice stable 5V source rather than using bus power.
The problem with PC's is that inside that nice Faraday cage of a box there is all sorts of EMI going on, then the SMPSU supply rails themselves are full of nasty transients, not only generated by the power supply itself but reflected back up the rails from switching regulators on the mainboard. None of this is going to help sound quality at all.