[linux-audio-user] Poor SN ratio with high quality sound cards

[John Ouzts]

Gentlemen:

I follow this list from the digest, so I could have missed a critical post. If 
so, please point me to the thread. 

I have two PCs I use almost exclusively for sound editing (with ReZound --- 
highly recommended for its crossfade ability). I record classical music on an 
Alesis MasterLink at 96kHz/24 bits, so I have quite a SN ratio to begin with. 
I need to edit the gaps between tracks where I want to preserve the hall 
ambience.  Whether I use an RME Digi96 PAD or an M-Audio Delta 44, the signal 
I get out of the sound editor is so low that I hear a lot of hum and other 
extraneous noise by the time I crank my amplifier's volume up enough to hear 
what is between the pieces. This noise is _not_ there when I burn a CD-R, 
however. 

I assume this means I need to send a digital signal (preferably 96/24 and 
lower) to an external DAC before sending the signal to my monitoring system. 
Would someone be kind enough to explain how to get a signal out of a PC that 
is fully equivalent in S/N to the CD-Rs the computer can burn?  

Many thanks, 

John