Assid,

Caution on a lot of Sound Blaster cards. They are great for PC's and games etc, but most including the Audigy have some built in filters that can make sound measurements a head scratcher and also tend not to output at high enough levels as to not generate noise of there own. You need to pegging the volume control on your PC most of the time.

The EMU 440 is a "semi-pro" card which is designed for higher output levels (watts, or maybe watt) in the first place. Which means you have some headroom before entering the "darkside"

Audio card benchmark software like http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml will tell you that the EMU440 has way better signal to noise ratios than a Sound Blaster..

Most laptop soundcards will show up on the Right Mark Benchmark software as a snowstorm and can't output more than a few milliwatts..

JMHO..