I appreciate this is my first post, but have been a browser of the forums for a while and am usually awesomely impressed with the quality of assistance. So here goes:

As many other query posts in this section (which I've read) I'm looking to upgrade from my SBlive! Value (bleh).

As I have a pretty nifty seperates amplifier and speaker setup, I'll be using my pc as the main output, so music playback quality is a must.

My other query is the ability to playback guitars (bass) through the soundcard, and thus through the speakers. I am reasonably naive when it comes to inputs to the soundcard, and was wondering if a more advanced (possibly even external) i/o port was needed.

Budget is around £100-150 ($200-250 I guess). The M-Audio Audiophile struck me as a good card (I was about to purchase the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Zs Platinum Pro before I absorbed the slating Creative gets on this site ) but was confused about the guitar issue.

Also left/right stereo outputs would be essential.

Many thanks in advance. I appreciate its asking alot, but I've read around as much as possible before resulting to pestering others

What about USB soundcards thread? The price will be mainly determined whether you will use a digital interconnect or not. I guess not.

I have a Stereo-Link and am quite happy with it. If you want pure playback it's one of your best options. M-Audio is another good one. And there is Onkyo UD-5.

I have to admit, I hate Creative products because I used to own a SBLive and realized how much I was cheated when I got a Stereo-Link.

Take a look at the Tascam US-122 USB sound device ... it features 6,3 mm mic inputs that are suited for instruments as well and you can mix instrument inputs with line level inputs.

You can set up excellent guitar monitoring on the Prodigy 7.1 with the help of it's Advanced NSP feature. You can even apply VST effects in real time! Combined with plugins such as AmpliTube you can get some really great sounds, distortions, delays, you name it. When my guitarist friend tried it out at my place he said he'd like to have a setup like this for himself.

a quick question about the prodigy, is the integrated headphone amp any good? or is it just a gimmick to inflate the price???

Prodigy 7.1 Headphone amplifier specifications
1) Output: 60mW Max
2) Signal-noise ratio: 110dB (Typical)
3) (THD+N) /S: -70dB and 0.03% (Typical)

Headphone out impedance is 33 ohm.