controller-soundcard or external soundcard

[illstep]

hi everyone,

i am planning on buyin a PA-system for our party-room. since i will have to test different speakers along the way i wanna be doing this with a better soundcard, since my current soundcard sucks with traktor.

it appears to me that the echo audiofire 4/2 are some of the the best external soundcards when it comes to sound quality. my questions is whether i will be able to hear a difference to good controller-internal soundcards of for example the vcm100, the vci300 or the stanton scs.1m.

i wanna buy a new controller sometime soon anyways so if the internal soundcards dont give me any disadvantages i'd rather buy a new controller now. (looking to get the scs.1m + 2x scs.1d if they happen to leave beta-status someday)

also i'd like to know whether these soundcards feature software equalizers. i don't know wheter they are even required for good PA-speakers, but i always felt like an equalizer can optimize sound quality alot.

i am running traktor pro on windows vista.

[illstep]

the hercules rmx is an option too, btw.

basicly i wanna know wheter theres differences in sound or performance between controllers with internal soundcards to the echo audiofire.

if someone has experiences with the following internal soundcards that would be great:

- hercules rmx
- stanton scs.1m
- vci 300