The sound card installs relatively easily. The physical connection options are the best I have ever seen, period. As with all the other quad capable speakers, there are front and rear outputs plus mic and line inputs. However, the Santa Cruz also has another connector called the VersaJack. The aptly named jack can be software set to output the center channel in a 5.1 setup, output a digital stream, act as another line out, or function as a secondary stereo line input and all these changes can be done on the fly! It may not sound like much on paper, but one example of its use could be as a headphones out jack, even if you had already occupied the front and rear channels with your quad speaker setup. At home I have a Vortex2 card with a quad speaker setup, and to use headphones I am always having to unplug the rear line out a huge hassle.