The twin cards idea was a red herring. The old card did not fit the PCI slots in my new computer so I have continued exploring the SB XFi card. After much testing of hardware and various software programs, I have returned to my old suspicions the Creative In Driver "What You Hear".

At Sample Rate 44.1K, recorded tracks crackle and pop and are unusable - no adjustments in the RD Audio Panel helped. At 48K, the results were better and finally at 96K, the results were good using Default RB Audio Settings.

I remain suspicious until I have finished the current song.