Sound Card Help

[Andrew Smith]

Hey all,

 

Wondering if you can help me... I have a Sound Blaster SB0410 PCI sound card running in a computer at a hospital radio station. The station has two studios which are live at different times when presenters come in to do a show. There is also a computer with the sound card I just mentioned which acts as a 24 hour play out system when neither studios on air. The computer plays music and prerecorded shows when there are no live presenters on air to provide a continuous service.

 

The reason for using the card is that it's nice and loud and hits pretty much the same levels on the PPM which indicates the level of the audio signal on front of the broadcasting control box as the two studios do when they're live. This is good because there are no drops or jumps in volume between one of the studios going on or off air and the 24 play out system.

 

The first half of the problem is, the computer that the card is in literally does nothing but run the software to do all of this and nothing else which is a waste of resources. The only reason the computer runs is because its a bit older and can take the PCI card. I want to get rid of the computer to scale back on the IT side of things and make life a little simpler and run the software on the server there. Being an older PCI card, it of course won't go into the newer server. I tried hammering but...

 

The second half of the problem is, I'm really not sure what sound card could match the output of the Sound Blaster. I've looked into the Asus Xonar cards and my understanding is that they're capable of outputting more. I just wanted to see if anyone could confirm this or suggest any other cards. They must be PCI Express as well.

 

I don't really want to add an amp or a headphone amplifier into the equation here. I'd prefer to keep things as simple as possible. Just wanted to mention that before someone suggested it. Anyway many thanks!

 

Andrew.