The Dragon+ uses an integrated Zoltrix Nightengale Pro 6 channel card. Not a bad card at all. It is similar to the turtle beach santa cruz, the aureal vortex 2 quad digital, or the creative Live! soundblaster value. In other words, it, like all of the above cards, uses 8 bit DACs (Digital to analog converters). So if you are using the analog outs (miniplugs), the sound is not as good as audiophile cards that use 10 bit DACs, such as the MAudio cards, which cost over $200.
If you plan to use the digital outs, the quality is, by definition, equal to any other card. That is my opinion of course. Some claim to hear a difference in the digital outputs of better cards, "judder" or what not. I'm thinking "so what, are their zeros rounder? are the ones straighter? how do you improve a digital signal?"
The nice thing about having integrated digital sound is that it uses no RAM and much less processing power. My memory on this is faulty, but somewhere I saw a comparison; the upshot was that a Dragon + sending SPDIF out used about 5-8% CPU time, while a PCI card like an Audigy brought that figure up to 11-16% CPU utilization. way too much for sound IMO.
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