I've been using the 8*24 for a bit now, and I'm still happy. I've heard good reviews of the converters, and I've been pleased with the results for the price.
The converters are actually on the card INSIDE the PC. Some people fear the noise generation from that setup. In a quick test, the noise floor on my setup with nothing connected to the patchbay stayed below -72dB in Sound Forge 4.5 (I've only recorded at 16-bit thus far). Measurements get rather coarse at that low level with only 16-bits (you're down at the bottom of the bit-bucket), so it's hard to be accurate. It's pretty quiet.
8 ins was a must for me. My digital 8-track was a 4-buss unit, and that became my bottle-neck when I wanted more mics on the drums or needed to transfer tracks from other sources. 4 at a time tied my hands way too much.
Realize that it's limited to 48kHz max. If you ever plan to do 96k, this card won't do it. It doesn't include the digital I/O at that price either, but the daughter-card is less than $200. There are no timing or sync bells and whistles. Just 8 decent A/D and D/A converters and MIDI in/out.
My only real gripe is that it uses a wall wart. I really prefer to avoid 'em, but the cost has to be cut somewhere.
[This message has been edited by pglewis (edited 06-26-2000).]
