"Ken Bouchard" wrote in message
et
any recommendations on a good sound card under $100 with decent "line
in" characteristics?

For that price you're stuck with a *consumer* line-in, ca. 1 volt RMS
maximum input, unbalanced, 16 bits.

The good news is that you can get 4 such inputs (2 stereo pairs) for about
$60 with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

If you check my tect tests
http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/santa_cruz/index.htm you'll see that the
Santa Cruz is not a SOTA masterpiece, but it is uncolored and the noise
level is manageable for most practical applications if care is taken with
the level setting. You can listen to how looping musical sounds through a
Santa Cruz colors them by downloading files from
http://64.41.69.21/product/santa_cruz/index.htm .

Let your ears (and pocket book) be your guide!

;-)

OK, Arny, gotcha, the Santa Cruz looks good according to your review so I'll
get one.
Now for sort of a general question: Are there any measurements one can look
at with a simple VOM, or do you need a good DVM? (like maybe the level of
the signal going into your "line in")
I'm asking because even my "cheapo" VOM has a dB scale.

thanks, ken

--
1st Class Restoration
"Put your old music on CD"
www.dvbaudiorestoration.com


"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Ken Bouchard" wrote in message
et
any recommendations on a good sound card under $100 with decent "line
in" characteristics?

For that price you're stuck with a *consumer* line-in, ca. 1 volt RMS
maximum input, unbalanced, 16 bits.

The good news is that you can get 4 such inputs (2 stereo pairs) for about
$60 with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

If you check my tect tests
http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/santa_cruz/index.htm you'll see that
the
Santa Cruz is not a SOTA masterpiece, but it is uncolored and the noise
level is manageable for most practical applications if care is taken with
the level setting. You can listen to how looping musical sounds through a
Santa Cruz colors them by downloading files from
http://64.41.69.21/product/santa_cruz/index.htm .

Let your ears (and pocket book) be your guide!

;-)

"Ken Bouchard" wrote in message
et

OK, Arny, gotcha, the Santa Cruz looks good according to your review
so I'll get one.

Now for sort of a general question: Are there any measurements one
can look at with a simple VOM, or do you need a good DVM? (like maybe
the level of the signal going into your "line in")
I'm asking because even my "cheapo" VOM has a dB scale.

IME a cheap analog meter is often better for audio than a cheap digital
meter.

As you point out, the cheap analog meter generally has a dB scale, which has
some value.

IME no cheap meter has good frequency response up to 20 KHz, but the analog
meter probably has better frequency response than the digital meter.

Maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I find it easier to relate to relative
indications on an analog scale - that's probably why so many digital meters
have an analog-like bar graph as part of their display.

My last analog meter broke about 20 years ago, and I miss it. It wasn't
cheap, and I got a lot of good out of it.

Ken Bouchard wrote:
I found a site that APPEARS to have decent prices for sound cards and it has
pictures of those cards. One thing bothers me about their higher end cards:
They all seem to have RCA plugs! No mini plugs.! Are you expected to get an
adapter, or what? Are they ALL like that?

All the higher-end models either have digital coax out or RCA jacks at
a minimum. THey assume you are going to connect them to an amplifier.

"Joseph Oberlander" wrote in message

Ken Bouchard wrote:
I found a site that APPEARS to have decent prices for sound cards
and it has pictures of those cards. One thing bothers me about their
higher end cards: They all seem to have RCA plugs! No mini plugs.!
Are you expected to get an adapter, or what? Are they ALL like that?

All the higher-end models either have digital coax out or RCA jacks at
a minimum. THey assume you are going to connect them to an amplifier.

RCA jacks for anything but SP/DIF digital I/O indicate that the sound card
is a consumer, medium-quality product. High end sound cards use TRS or XLR
connectors for analog I/O.

All the higher-end models either have digital coax out or RCA jacks at
a minimum. THey assume you are going to connect them to an amplifier.

That's higher-end as compared to really-nasty-consumer-end. :-)
Up a few more notches you start seeing balanced connections.

Laurence Payne wrote:
All the higher-end models either have digital coax out or RCA jacks at
a minimum. THey assume you are going to connect them to an amplifier.


That's higher-end as compared to really-nasty-consumer-end. :-)
Up a few more notches you start seeing balanced connections.

Well, yeah - but considering the OP was looking for an under $400
solution...