EMU 1212m Died, What Modern Sound Card is capable of replacing it?

About 1 1/2 months ago, my Left Audio channel in my 1212m died on me. Ever since I have been using my onboard RealTek ALC889 and suffice to say I have not bother to listen to any music since the Realtek sounds cheap, muddy, compressed and unrefined. Even in gaming its crap.

My current setup was 1212m> Gilmore Lite>HD650

It's very important to me that whichever sound card I buy is able to at least measure up to the sound reproduction quality of my 1212m. I borrowed an asus Xonar DX from my friend for 1 day and was very displeased with it's aggressive artificial sound, certainly much better than my Realtek but not even close to my EMU. 

I am aware of the ASUS STX and the AuzenTech Forte. I assume these 2 cards are most likely the mainstream candidates . I like to listen to music, game and watch movies. I am strictly a 2 channel Audio guy. Since I have a dedicated Amp these on board amps in todays sound cards do not interest me.  Also I plan to buy some Swan MKIII's for my desktop PC. The sound signature that I am looking for is musical, revealing and Warm. I absolutly dislike bright sounding Audio.

I was hoping that maybe some of you could chime in here. Do the new generation of high end sound cards excel over the 1212m when it comes to 2 channel audio?

Quote:

Originally Posted by khaos974 

You should post at gearslutz, which is a forum for audio engineers, you are more likely to find information relevant to this topic there.

I think maybe you have misunderstood me. I am not using this sound card for mixing/audio creation(although originally I did) It's primary use for me is listening to 2 channel audio and playing games and watching movies.

Well I know all the information about it's OP-AMPS and DACS I was trying to see if anybody here who used to own one can share there experience when moving over to say the ASUS STX or Creative Ti HD etc... 

Basically is there a significant enough improvement to justify moving to another sound card.