When I was a lad, it was all soundcards ’round here. Now a trip to your local PC emporium’s a very different experience. You’ll find a handful of cards pitched at pro-gamers, a couple of USB interface devices and lots of speakers. Speakers and headphones. Aisles of them stretching as far as the eye can see, like that bit in The Matrix.
Okay – we exaggerate – but only a bit. The PC audio industry has turned topsy-turvy. Where once the soundcard was an essential component in every system, it now seems like an afterthought – if it’s included at all. Check out a cross [...]