If I post this enough times maybe it'll eventually appear in the 'groups....
Sorry if you've seen this posting before but I cannot see it at all.

I decided to trial an "M-Audio Audiophile 2496" card which cost me well
under £100 to see how viable "PC as source" is. I usually listen to a Denson
Beat B500/Linn Kairn/LK2/Acoustic-Energy-AE1 and I simply plugged the PC
output into the Kairns Aux-1 inputs. The PC is a Dell 8300 which is
reasonably near to being silent (I can't hear if it is switched on from
across the room)

I am simply amazed at the performance of this cheap PC card. With a variety
of music styles from Eminem to Hornsby to Mozart I find it hard to
distinguish between the Denson and the PC, and my wife and son claim to be
completely unable to tell which is playing. I had understood that PCs were a
poor environment for a DAC and I was very surprised at this result. If
pushed I would say that the Denson is warmer and more musical but the
difference is sufficiently small that I am not convinced that it is not my
subjective knowledge of the source coming through.

So... is this (surprising result to me) what the experts out there would
expect, and how much better are the more expensive PC cards eg RME 968pad,
lynxone, lynxtwo? In a permanent setup I would buy one of the more expensive
cards if they are audibly superior to the m-audio 2496. Or would I be better
off taking a digital output from the 2496 card and using a separates DAC?

Tom