Buying the SB Platinum from reviews was my mistake. It received a 9/10 Score in the UK's Computer Music magazine. and has a four star rating in Australias PC User. I could be wrong, but I somehow feel that alot of these magazine reviews could be beefed up sales talk.
What about try before you buy?? I walked in to a number of music shops and insisted on a demonstration. (yeah, right) I hear you say? I think if you live in a considerablely large town or city, They should be at least one or two musician stores that would have a computer set up with a soundcard. If you have no luck, try visiting some recording studios to see the equipment in action. I've read many reviews on sound cards but I've never really seen much on the Delta. I simply bought it, because I liked what I heard when it was demonstrated to me.
I also had a Darla demonstrated to me but knocked it back because at the time of purchasing, it didn't have a breakout box.
Have a look at the issue of a breakout box. If you move your equipment around to record at different locations, you may where out the conncetors on the card from connecting and disconnecting over a number of years. When the connectors on the breakout box become loose you only have to replace the break-box rather then the entire card.
As mentioned a few times too, I disliked that wackey front panel interface with the SBLIVE. I'll never use three quarters of the stuff on there and.... the sblive has a inbuilt microphone connection which impacts on the sound quality.