<< And the amp inside also seems weaker. >>
No computer sound card has an amp. Do you know how much power draw and heat would increase? Plus the fact that you'd need a retaining bracket just to keep the PCB from cracking under all that weight.
<< Its such a shame Aureal went out of business. >>
Yes it is, and that's why I'll never buy another CL product again. Bastards. :|
For some people, the Audigy wouldn't be the best choice, especially if you have a motherboard with a VIA South Bridge. I used to have a link about the fact that the front channels of the Audigy sounded pretty bad compared to other contemporary sound cards.
BTW, I wonder what the 24-bit playback is for? Certainly not for DVD-Audio, because i) DVD-Audio has a 24-bit depth and 192KHz sampling rate (whereas PCM, the signal for CD audio is 16-bit/48Khz), and ii) there are no software decoders for DVD-Audio, and iii) there are no standalone DVD-Audio decoders, and iv) if there were, you would have to connect a digital-out from the Audigy to the DVD-Audio decoder so that it can decode the audio signal and separate it into 6 channels and convert the signal from digital to analog so that the speakers can play it and v), if you wanted that, you could have gotten a DVD-Audio player, whose use is much better applied in a real home theatre. That leaves professional musicians, but then vi) the recording depth/sampling rate is 16/48. How queer is that?