This might be a weird advice but: Cheap monitors suck! It's hugely better to go for a REALLY GOOD headphones: sennheiser HD580, or 600, or 650. They are the TOP of the top, also for Sennheiser! 580 came first, then the 600 and then the 650. I have the HD600, for 3 years now. Never had a problem, I DON'T have any monitors (but now I'm planning on buying but I have a budget of $3000) and you can listen to my mixes if you like. They should be rather expensive (around 400 CAD) but you don't need the monitors so you CAN take it out from there.
As for soundcard... An excellent solution would be Lynx, but again is a bit pricey. 450$. If it wasn't for the inputs, then if you stick to only digital, any soundcard, including the one in your motherboard, you shouldn't have any problems in quality. GPO is 16-bit, so no problem in listening, and the only real issue is what you hear. If, however, you do record outside then the soundcard matters a lot. I don't have a lot of recomendations really, except that emu are not really good at soundcards. The pro series again go rather higher...
If you are serious about music, do attempt to go for 1 thing and let it be extra good. If you want to buy a soundcard for example, do spend the... 500$+ but this should last "a lifetime". Hardware does not vanish, like software does in a few years. You can keep a sound card for many years.
Linky for the headphones:
Sennheiser Worldwide: HD 600 - Headsets / Headphones Professional - Equipment Manufacturer - Information,Test
Also, sweetwater and audiomidi seem to be at war and are on offers now. They could offer something like 10-20% off because of Xmas. So... Now it's the time to buy.
