[PhoxHound]

The holiday season is approaching, and you know what that means: time to get new stuff. As much as I love my Xmod, I think an upgrade is in order. I have the ability to install an internal PCI sound card (read: not PCIe since I don't have any x1 slots) so I figure I may as well. Since I'm using going to be using an amp straight out of the sound card a line level out is necessary, and line level in is necessary also since I record mixes. MIDI is a very nice bonus, not required, but I'm much more likely to pick a card that has MIDI on it. For now I'm going to be using it with my Roland RH200, though in the future it may see use with a Denon D2000 or Sennheiser HD600. 150 dollars seems like a good price range to me.

It doesn't need to have any speaker outs: I have standard bookshelf speakers and an AV receiver.

The card I'm looking at right now is the ESI Juli@, which has a very appealing feature set at a reasonable price. Cards from the Asus Xonar series look good, but they don't have line level out; can this be compensated for by using the front speaker port? TigerDirect says that you can use the front speaker port for an amplifier...

 

[PhoxHound]

bump please.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Almost any onboard or add-in soundcard will have line-level inputs and outputs.
Xonars have line_level outputs not sure why sombody told you different.

I know many that just plug consumer level audio gear(AVR's,EQ's,CD players,tape decks..etc) to their soundcards I am one of them...

 

[PhoxHound]

at least thanks for the clear up, most consumer sites make it very unclear...

 

[PhoxHound]

okay. I think I forgot to mention (and forgot to consider) that I need at least 2 stereo outputs and at least 1 stereo input. RCA is nice but if I have to use TRS that's no big deal. Still not sure of which card to choose.

 

[ROBSCIX]

What card you go with is up to you. Sites will say a card has speaker outs but they are not, they are line_out 1, Line_out 2...etc..etc. -they are usually meant for specific outputs though as fronts, rears...and unable to be remapped throguh the driver.
Same thing with line in. Both will fall within the specification so of the line spec and any soundcard is compatible with any consumer or proaudio gear it is just matter of cables or adapters.

I suggest looking at recording cards they usually have multiple line-outs that can be selected in the way that you want. Good luck.

 

[PhoxHound]

any specific suggestions? the m-audio delta 44 looks pretty good but I'm unsure of the connections...it says it takes balanced TRS but they aren't stereo right? so I would have to get a single TRS to single RCA, and with 2 stereo outs and 1 stereo in being used practically the whole thing would be taken up... (stereo out to receiver, stereo out to headphone amp, stereo in from mixer)