Dunno I always had very good luck with so-called class compliant Firewire interfaces, no drivers nothing just literally plug and play.

All my work is tracked at 96k/24 no issues, extremely low latency. Echo AudioFire12, Apogee Rosetta 800 & now RME UCX. Tho I use Mac & Logic so I can't speak for windows peeps.

I use an Mbox 2 and dont have any issues with latency
Solid product

i found that the USB 2.0 interface i had did pretty much just as well as my Firewire 400 interface in terms of latency. the main issue i ran into was keeping a dedicated USB buss open on my laptop, and still use heaps of midi stuff.

please forgive my ignorance, but why do you need a sound card? For live use?

i have a general rule

if it's good enough for little-scale, it's good enough for me

Yeah, USB has come a long, long way in recent years. You can easily have a USB-based solution with sub-10ms latency, which isn't noticeable.

^ haha what? there are heaps of great USB interfaces. maybe switch to firewire if you're picky about latency? :\

and then building a decent desktop is like an order of magnitude more expensive than just buying a decent USB interface. depends how serious you are maybe? all i know is that having a fairly portable recording setup is really great.

Who am I, right? But I fully suggest to stay away from the USB audio Input. Build a desktop.

My suggestion, and what I'm using, is the Behringer Xenyx 302usb. Super affordable for a usb mixer with stereo inputs. Small footprint and you can power it through a wall adapter to power it as well. I think it has a super clean sound for the price. Here's an amazon link: Xenyx 302usb
Here's a link to a track I recorded with the mixer: You Won't Remember Me

Hope that helps in some way!

both the maudio products ive owned were total trash if that helps

This is what I use:

http://www.amazon.com/Digidesign-Portab … B000KW4TZK

Works like a charm, but the drivers are a pain to get working on linux if thats your thing.

I'd go for Focusrite as well if on a budget. Their drivers seem stable.
(Would not recommend having just a Zoom instead of a proper i/o)

also seconded, I have a zoom h4n and it's a real workhorse. Definitely worth the cash if you'd also like a portable microphone. Personally I would still recommend getting a good computer interface first.

Another one for m-audio, I can't remember what my little recording device is (it's in a box somewhere) but when I've used it, it's worked really well. I'm pretty sure it's reasonably cheap, I "borrowed" mine from school a while back, so I'm not sure of the retail price

i use my zoom h2 for all recording purposes.

ya its a microphone but also it has a line in and you can record directly into your pc or go onto an SD card with no pc attached. cool sh*t