Hi I'm interested in buying either a usb or firewire soundcard, specifically for high quality recording from a microphone. I've got no idea whats out there apart from the maudio audiophile usb, which looks alright and I'm willing to spend in that price range, but obviously cheaper is better.

any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

ps - the reason i want an external one is because I tried using my internal audigy card, but the recording was noisy and I wasnt impressed.

Tom's hardware did a pretty complete review just this week.

Link

Might have enough info to get you started.

Later,
Cal

they're all cheap soundcards without phantom power on the mic inputs etc, though.

Were you trying to record without a preamp? That would give an insane amount of noise on the audigy. What equipment are you using? First you say you tried using the audigy, and then you want something with phantom power, so I don't get what you're trying to do.

not sure what you mean by preamp, the microphone im using has a phantom power supply included, which i tried - if thats what you mean.

I assumed the noise in the recording was due to the soundcard being inside the computer.

Presumably your microphone has a battery and uses a miniplug connector. (Microphones with phantom power are powered by the preamp and use XLR connectors.)
A microphone produces a low level signal, much lower than the line-level signal required by analog to digital converters. The signal therefore needs to be amplified at some point between the microphone output and the ADC.
A "line in" input takes the signal straight to the ADC, expecting a line level signal.
A "mic in" input hopefully amplifies the signal (internal mic preamp) before it gets to the ADC. However the Audigy (I tried on the extigy, and audigy must be the same) either has a terrible mic preamp or uses none at all and just amplifies the output digitally (like digital magnification in digital cameras). Either way, this input is basically unusable. Some cards will have usable mic in inputs with internal preamps. (E.g. M-audio, terratec.)
My advice: get an external mic preamp with minijack input and output. You can get a basic one on ebay for <$50 (they are advertised as being for minidisc). You can spend more obviously and get better quality. Plug into line input (or mic input if you still need more amplification). This will give you a minimal, flexible solution for what you need (single mic input with minijack).
Your audigy will now sound decent. And if you want to upgrade it, you won't need something expensive, just something with a good line in. My M-audio transit seems pretty good. However the most critical parts of your setup will be the microphone and preamp.

I have a preamp I'll be selling (getting a very nice denecke AD-20 with digital output). But I'll only be in the UK again on the 25th. (I checked your profile; thought you might be the same grizzly I've argued with from time to time on christianforums.)

Check this out:
http://www.esi-pro.com/viewProduct.php?pid=16

It's got 2 mic preamps (switchable 48V phanotom power), a HI-Z input (for electric guitars), analog gain control...

Input ADC DR/SNR 114dB, output DAC DR/SNR - 112dB.