High-end Sound Cards Worth It?

[ATI Radeon 8500]

I am not talking about Audigies I mean the audiophile type sound cards that cost more than a GeForce 4 Ti4600 (i.e. Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe with an MSRP of $595), I'm not sure why I am asking here because this is nto an audiophile forum but this will be hooked into a stereo that is VERY high-end (not a computer stereo an 8 or 9 piece stereo) and this card would not have the standard Sound Blaster type functions liek for computer speakers but has an analog I/O and 2 digital I/Os. This would be used in a computer devoted to music but I may put my Radeon in there if I like it a lot but otherwise I will put in my old GeForce. I will mostly use this computer to listen to music, save a few hundred CDs onto it, and output it into the stereo. Do you think that it would be worth $300-$350 for this card (I have found it below MSRP), it would be used a lot but that is a lot for a sound card?

[VolcomPimp]

I'm too cheap to even use anything better than the onboard sound...

I just built my friend a system a month ago or so, and he's

using a Extigy... I have to say that thing is pretty sweet...

[lunix]

Well if you have a decent stereo like you say then you probably care enough about your music to justify the purchase of a good soundcard.

My rig not only illustrates how terrible mp3's sound but it also allows me to hear how bad cd quality really is. I really hate having to dither a nice sounding track down to 16bit/44.1khz. I purchased a maudio audiophile 24/96 and I can honestly say that it made the biggest difference in audio quality since I threw away my "computer" speakers.

These are not gaming cards, they come with no 3d accelerated surround features. So if your into 3D audio in your games then dont bother.

You may want to do some reasearch in some pro audio forums to check for compatability issues, try the http://www.cubase.net/ forums. Good soundcards should come with good DAC's see what people say about them, unless your using digital the digital I/O.

Above all remember that friends dont let friends buy Creative.