I've heard mods to an M-Audio revolution (stock value approx US$99) and it is pretty good stock, slight improvement modded with upgraded caps, opamps etc... mods cost about $60+ in parts though and not really worth it IMHO. Better to save one's pennies and go for a Lynx or similar when second hand. The digital out is clean however and you could plug a nice DAC into it for high end sound.
Don't let the paundits fool you, almost all the music we listen to recorded over the past 15 years has been masterd and recorded on hard disk and 'suffered' from computer's EMI. the electrical noise inside a PC may be there, but if it can't be heard during playback (or even the recording phase), then what's the problem?
IMHO, a decently configured pc (Lynx soundcard or similar) can match or best almost anything out there regardless of price as there is low R&D per unit sales and no ridiculous markups for dealers and distributors. If the highend, pro level sound cards were a hifi device, they would likely cost $10k+ as it is, they can still cost $800+!
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