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Editor: Thank you very much for your wonderful review of the CardDeluxe in September. We at Digital Audio Labs have always been proud of this product, and are very excited to have it introduced to Stereophile's readers.

I would like to take this opportunity to address a couple of the issues raised in the article.

Regarding the use of the emphasis bit, DAL has always taken the stance that the role of the soundcard is to pass audio (analog or digital) with the least possible alteration to the audio data. As such, we do not attempt to de-emphasize…

In my September 2000 review of this high-performance 24-bit/96kHz PCI-bus soundcard (p.70), I described my positive impressions of its analog inputs and outputs. I had used the card's RCA S/PDIF digital input to transfer both CD and 24/88.2/96 music data to my computer's hard drives as WAV files. I also performed almost all my auditioning of the CardDeluxe's S/PDIF data output using it to feed the mighty Mark Levinson No.30.6 D/A processor. However, late in the day I specifically compared the card's analog outputs and an inexpensive…

The long-overdue review

Editor: Thanks for starting a series of reviews of PC soundcards. It's long overdue, as PCs are used by many of us to create and burn CDs. Most of the Soundblaster stuff is focused on games, not sound quality; kinda like comparing hi-fi to home theater.—Vade Forrester, San Antonio, TX, vforrester@satx.rr.com

A minor quibble

Editor: Just a minor quibble: in JA's September review, he made it sound like the Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe PC soundcard is the first that is capable of 24/96 resolution…

Editor: Kudos, Stereophile, for having the guts and foresight to print a soundcard review. Audiophile hard-liners might object to reviews on "computer" hardware, but I am all for it.

Astute audiophiles will have soundcards playing (pun intended) a large part in future system configurations for the improvements in sound quality they can provide. Soundcards can render obsolete the bandwidth and capacity limitations of the cheaply mass producible medium of the time because they exploit the ever increasing power of computers. Gone will be such nonsense as having only two…

The music of Miles Davis is more a religion than a career. What are the three subjects you should never mix with jazz-literate…

The Miles box might just be the record of the year, a brash prediction for me to make on the third day of 1997—but, given the significance of this material, also practically a no-brainer.

Impressed by Miles's performance at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival—and cognizant that their newly developed 12" LP had the potential to revolutionize the industry—Columbia Records executives recruited Davis to bolster their stable of jazz artists. There was just one problem: Miles was under contract to Prestige at the time. So Columbia and Prestige sharpened…

In his February 4 "Bad Science" online column for Guardian Unlimited, Ben Goldacre had ventured into the subject of blind testing as it applies to audio. He mused about "the widespread notion in the hi-fi community that blinded trials—where you ask listeners to identify a cable without knowing if it's cheap or expensive—are…

From the opening shofar blast on the trombones and the chorus's mournful recitative, "Thus spake Isaiah," we know we're in for something special which involved every element and every last…

As a significant amount of my overall music listening already takes…