I am mainly involved with copying SVHS tapes to DVDs. Somewhere on this board the comment was made that I should not be using the default sound device on my system board. I am using a Dell Precision 650 workstation, and the system board sound is "AC97 SoundBlaster emulation". Two-channel stereo sound is all I use.

What sound board should I consider buying? Cost (within reason) is not a constraint, but I want something easy to use.

Finally, I do play some acapella music CDs, and I seem to hear a "froth distortion" at high sound levels, which I don't hear on analog sources. Would a new sound card improve on this type of distortion or is this inherent in digital music?

Distortion, technical errors, inability to cooperate with video capture ... these are all side effects of the cheap-as-dirt sound cards built into motherboards.

Inversely, some of the "high end" cards are equally a pain in the rear, especially the "AUDIGY" line of cards.

You want a card that is middle of the road, about $30-60, and both Creative (SoundBlaster) and Turtle Beach make nice cards. I most often suggest the SoundBlaster Live series of cards, or a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card. The TB Santa Cruz does not have max volume of the SB card, but both will make you deaf anyway. I heard less hiss on the TB card, so I believe the SB volume may be artificially enhanced.

Some people claim varying degrees of noise on everything, be it digital video, analog video, digital audio, analog audio ... but unless it's extremely obvious, it's often imagined. A psychological thing. If you replace the audio card and still hear it, I'd suggest this. People hate to hear this too, but it's simply the truth.