Need Help On Soundcard Choice Options

[straydog]

I just bought a brand new imac G5 and I'm looking for a somewhat low-priced soundcard option (since most of my extra cash was spent on extra memory). I already have an AER compact head acoustic preamp (great!) so I really have not much need in terms of gain control, XLR ins or phantom power. I checked out the m-audio audiophile USB, which seems to work fine for me, but since i have some more to spent, I also think of buying the Digidesign M-box (no MIDI,sadly). So I guess three questions arise:
a) Does the audiophile have decent sound quality?
b) Is there anything at about the price of the m-box to rival it?
c) Is the Protools LE software (never tried it) so much better than Cubase that it would be worth buying the M-Box just to be able to use it?

Any help will be really appreciated

Odysseas

[deegone]

hi rickenbacker.i totally agree with you,cubase was good 'till they changed to sx...that's what basically put me off it and that's how i ended up with logic.as for PT,yeah it costs a lot more to fill it up with plugs and stuff,even though is worth it,it all depends on what sort of application are you going to use it.