Ah, so the X-Station already *is* a USB-soundcard. That's nice, why do you need another one? ;)
I can use it as my sound card, but it lacks certain desirable features, such as S/PDIF input. Not to mention I'm not sure that it was really designed to be a sound card, especially for recording purposes. Furthermore, I can only use the built-in DSP on incoming analog signals, not the input coming from my machine (via JACK->USB) even though it will output anything I send it through JACK. If I had a separate soundcard with mutliple analog outputs I could patch individual tracks from it into my synth to do some extra DSP (it has some nice reverb/delay/chorus effects built in). Although now that you mention it, I can put up with any shortcomings the synth has, I just bought my first pair of studio-grade headphones anyway, and I've still got college to pay for. ;p Nonetheless, I've learned quite from your responses (and the resulting research that followed), and eventually I'll use this knowledge to make the right choice. Cheers, -Lou