[linux-audio-user] Looking for an external sound card for 'nix -- recommendations?

[Louis Acresti]

(Forgive me if this is a duplicate, but it looks like the mailer
dropped this message the first time..)

I've been lurking on LAU for a few months now and I've finally managed
to come up with something worth asking:
I'm looking for an affordable external sound card for music
production. What are your recommendations?
Being a novice, I'm having trouble finding what I "need" (and I'm
growing wary of google's pagerank system...) so I thought I'd query
the real experts. ;-)

I try to keep my options open, but there are some things I prefer:
-It should be a hell of a lot better than the crappy onboard AC'97
sound I use right now (SNAP-CRACKLE-POP)
-It should be external: USB or Firewire or otherwise are all OK (I'll
be using it with my desktop now, but I plan on setting up a laptop for
music some time)
-It should be affordable: I can always make exceptions here
(especially since I'm not very familiar with this type of hardware),
but I'd prefer if it were around $200 USD or less.
-It should be *exceptionally* functional with Linux and JACK.
(Naturally, this is best proven through experience)
-Although the above should cover this, it ought to work with my
Novation X-Station synthesizer (which already works great through USB
with JACK)

I'd really appreciate any recommendations -- or blacklists (although
ALSA's soundcard matrix usually faithful enough) -- of hardware to be
used by a novice electronic musician.

I try to be brief, so if I'm being too ambiguous just ask me for details!

Thanks,
  -Lou