Good point about the motherboard. New ones may no longer even have a PCI slot. They should have a PCIe slot, though.

Some years ago I thought it was better to get audio out of the box, so to speak, to avoid electrical and radio interference. The USB interfaces certainly solved that. But great equipment like RMI, Lynx and MOTU cards are still fine in the box.

I had a 2496 card, too.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.