Yamaha CAVIT DP-U50 Sound Card

Pros: Easy setup. Great sound. Flexibility.
Cons: No built-in amplifier.

I've had it a week and I love it. I got it on sale for $50.

Setup was effortless - I plugged it in and WinXP detected it immediately. I put the CD in the drive, and that installed without any fuss. I don't know what the previous reviewer had a problem with, as I'm using XP home and it worked perfectly.

The sound is great. Easily better than some of the SB stuff I've heard elsewhere. Its also more flexible - it can take RCA and optical-audio inputs from other devices, so you can capture sound directly from a DAT tape or DVD with optical output.

The only downside is that it lacks an internal amplifier. I believe other models in this line do, so grab one of them if that's more what you're after.

Pros: Great sound quality and physical volume control
Cons: No software support for Windows XP

This is an external USB connected digital audio processor. It acts as a sound card and connects to powered speakers (though Yamaha also has amplified models) It is not supported under Windows XP which is a big problem if you need the features in the software but it works fine w/o them - XP sees it as a sound card and it works immediately. I like to have a physical volume control in addition to s/w based and this gives you both.