[WriteLog] Quality of Sound Cards?

[Eric Rosenberg]

When I upgraded the shack computer from a P3 to a P4 (a 1.6 GHz IBM NetVista), I didn't swap the (Soundblaster 16 PCI) sound card.  Instead I am using the one built-in to the new computer.

My station is a HEil Proset feeding an Orion. I use Writelog.

I made a "recording on the fly" through the during the contest last weekend, and the results were sub-par, certainly when compared to the recording I made directly into the radio. 

My questions: 

- Is this a software configuration (i.e., how Writelog records) issue?

- Will the old sound card back sound better than the built-in one (i.e., are there greater and lesser than equal sound cards)?  If so, is the Audio Delta 44 Audio Card ($159) that the SDR-1000 uses worth the investment? 

73 & Thanks,

Eric W3DQ
Washington, DC