"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!

;-)