Well it was bound to happen eventually. Some of you may know I've earned my living by being a recording engineer for the last 25 years and as such my ears have NEVER let me down. For my day to day computer I always used a consumer card rather than the pro cards in my other computers and have LONG been a supporter of the SC for unmatched sound quality and stability. I picked up a Maya 7.1 Gold the other day and installed the drivers....a whopping 300K download and proceeded to do a LOT of listening tests and have found the Maya to sound QUITE a bit more natural and right sounding with zero stability issues under XP. Bear in mind most of my testing was done on recordings I did so I am intimately familiar with what is on them and exactly how they should sound. For me anyway there is a new champ and the difference is not subtle. I don't game so this is only based on music listening...WAV, APE and MPC mainly.