Turn the volume of your soundcard all the way up and then on the amp/receiver thats plugged into the soundcard adjust the volume to what you want. If you experience clipping then don't do this.

Don't buy cheapy usb-midi cables. Save yourself the headache and get a um-one. It does sysmessages properly.

Does a PS2 to AT adaptor work? The plugs look the same but I'm not sure if it's wired up inside the same .

The sound blaster omni too, has eax support.

My sound blaster 16 asp had it. It was a card only. no cdrom but it does have a cdrom interface.