Why would anyone need to buy another sound card, particularly one that costs this much? While the onboard sound that comes with most PCs is very good, it could still be improved on, and the Audigy 4 certainly delivers those improvements.

For a start, the sound quality is noticeably better, even through a pair of medium-quality headphones. It's crisper at the top of the range and the bass response is much fuller than from integrated sound.

But you can get a similar improvement in quality by spending £50 or £60 on a standard sound card. The thing that differentiates the Audigy 4 is the large box that connects to the sound card which, along with the three outputs on the back of the card itself, are the main reason to buy the Audigy 4.

You can connect almost any audio device to the Audigy4, as it has normal audio line-in and line-out sockets, digital (optical and coaxial) sockets, and even a pair of Midi sockets. There are also two FireWire ports.

For anyone involved or interested in making music using a computer this sort of thing will make life a whole lot easier. The software that comes with the card also helps to make sense of all the connections, and lets you access music using the remote control.

It's capable of handling 24-bit sound at 96KHz, which means better recordings and quality of playback. It also supports the latest EAX4 standard for in-game sound.

Installation was easy, but it needs an internal power connection which caused our test PC to crash as it didn't have enough power left for the rest of the computer. Unplugging our USB devices solved the problem, but you'll need to bear this in mind.

All this power might be overkill for a general user, but for the enthusiast this is the best sound card out there.

Also consider:
Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit External