Listen with your ears not your eyes.

Heres some thoughts for all u ppl out there..
Something feels a bit wrong when the ppl here on "Toms hardware guide" recomends us which soundcard to buy because they are clearly not the right ppl for this.
Whenever you test an audioproduct, if it's an amp, a signal cable, a soundcard or whatever you alwyas make your final jugement on what you hear with your own ears.
The bigest joke Iv come across in a long time is a soundcard test on this site. They through a a various range of soundcards outputed the audiosignals from a few games to a pair of pc speakers and together with some simple tests made thier jugement. Does the guys resposible know what a correctly reproduced audiosignal sounds like? I seriously doubt it! And another test where they tested the new creative card only using software. No measurment hardware was used what so ever.
I have one tip for all you guys out there, listen with your ears not your eyes.

BTW, based on reviews from other sites on the sound quality, I am considering the Philips Acoustic Edge

If you are after the best possible soundreproduction forget creative and various gamecards. Instaid take a peek at studio sound cards from Terratech, M audio and others. Dio 2448 from M audio is in my opinion the best choice if you have less then 100$ to spend. It's a 24bits card with DA and AD convertern of suprisingly high quality.
If you are looking for a pure gamesoundcard with 3D soundprocessing and acceleration, in that case take a look at Turtle beach Santa Cruz or VideoLogic Sonic Fury as its called in europe(If you'r using an external DA, Turtle Beach Montego 2 quadzilla (Santa cruz also have a digital output but not of the same quality)).

Ok, well I I don't need to record sound (though I sometimes use my microphone so I don't want any issues with it).
I also don't need any special outputs -- just whatever works best for my speakers - I have 4 Altech Lansing Speakers with subwoofer.

What I want is good sound quality, but that will not slow down my games much. I have some 3D strategy games - Homeworld, and others. Maybe I should just go with Sound Blaster, unless someone can show me some reviews or information. Just personal opinion isn't gonna help me make a decision much unless I have a little info to go on.