Sir, I am glad your Audigy doesn't display this problem. (BTW which version of the Audigy?).
The audiophile 2496 does display the digital clipping problem - here is a reference to a thread at hydrogenaudio forums if you are interested. As the 2496 card is very popular with people transfering vinyl to CDR it is worth mentioning here.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... =12349&hl=
I believe it is quite possible that the variance in design of different makes of soundcard might include variance in the ability to handle different levels of "line level" input. Knowledge of such might be useful in informing any soundcard purchasing decisions - however I for one never seem to find out about drawbacks with soundcards - such as the internal resmpling issues in Audigy cards - until I have bought one on the strength of wonderful reviews. Yes, I have an Audigy sitting alongside my Audiophile 2496 and I personally prefer the results from the 2496, but the only thing that matters in the end is what each of us individually hears and finds good.
If anyone is experiencing digital clipping with their particular soundcard then I hope my earler post helped - that was my only intention and I didn't make the claim that ALL soundcards would exhibit digital clipping, or that it couldn't be rectified in software.
Having said that, I find it hard to visualise how software could control the level of a line input to avoid digital clipping *before* it has been through an ADC and entered the digital domain. I am not an electronics guru and I would welcome someone of greater knowledge explaining this in a way that won't make my head explode or simply saying you move the slider in the on-screen mixer!
I don't want to take part in a my soundcard is better than your soundcard argument, but I would like to understand better why some soundcards may be more vulnerable to digital clipping than others.