Score: 7.5

Modern sound cards are fitted with A/D and D/A converters that a few years ago could only be found in top-end measuring instruments. This makes it quite tempting to use a sound card for audio equipment measurements, especially as it fits quite nicely in the Windows environment. However, it takes more than good converters to make a good instrument, as we all know. Our test shows how well a number of sound cards score with real signals.