The audiophile 24/96 sounds great - and as long as you are only recording yourself, or you are willing to record a band one or at the most two instruments at a time it works great. Basically you are getting two analog recording inputs, one midi, and one SPDIF, that's the four inputs. In order to use the SPIDF you need to be running through something that already has a AD\DA converter like an effects box or a dedicated covnverter before you can use it. The SPDIF needs a digital signal coming in.