That's BS!
Care to elaborate in what sense are they of "far far better quality"?
For once I totally agree with llO… no, seriously, we're in total agreement here.
It's audio my friend. It's
perception. Just because item "A" meets a particular specification doesn't mean it sounds as good or better than item "B" that has the same specifications. Almost ALL of the years-long fuss over analog vs. digital audio was over the accuracy and sound quality of the ADAs used…… Hell, it still is.
I had a G3 Desktop with the same chip. I used it to play music occasionally from the CD drive thru a typical little pair of computer speakers. I also DID have that output routed thru my patch bay so I could easily pass it to my console and main system. It in NO way whatsoever sounded anything like my Delta 44 ADA I had at the time - nor did i expect it to. It was certainly never intended to be a high-quality / pro chip.
It's no different than being able to hear the difference between say, two 100-watt amplifiers with virtually identical specs. On paper, they
should sound alike… but they don't. Sound is an intangible, subjective thing. Person A is perfectly happy with 128k Mp3 quality, person B won't tolerate anything less than 16/44 PCM and person C won't be happy until the newest 384 kHz $5000 ADA shows up at his door. My wife actually still has and listens to an ancient RCA 45RPM record player. She loves her old scratched up 45s. They send chills down my spine.
I DO know there is certainly a difference between the sound of Syntho's PT interface and the 9600 built-in.
That is the simple reason I said "Since I/we don't know at all what you play or what kind of gear you play it through, the logical approach is clearly for you to take a 1/8"-to-whatever cord and find out for yourself if it works for you."