The unbalanced outs should not be a problem unless you have some kind of crazy interference flying around. I use a whole unbalanced rack of stuff at work and interface with the 2496 with no problems. Any pops and noises people have will be due to a sketchy computer setup. A second hard drive is always a good idea. There are lots of RCA cables that will work.
Haven't used the EMU, but I doubt it could be any better. Maybe no worse though. If the thought of unbalanced is scary to you, perhaps you should spend the extra $70 or whatever on the 192 version of the M-Audio card.
The unbalanced outs should not be a problem unless you have some
The unbalanced outs should not be a problem unless you have some kind of crazy interference flying around. I use a whole unbalanced rack of stuff at work and interface with the 2496 with no problems. Any pops and noises people have will be due to a sketchy computer setup. A second hard drive is always a good idea. There are lots of RCA cables that will work.
Haven't used the EMU, but I doubt it could be any better. Maybe no worse though. If the thought of unbalanced is scary to you, perhaps you should spend the extra $70 or whatever on the 192 version of the M-Audio card.