What are some of the best 2 channel sound cards?

I use an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 and like it a lot. I use it to record LP's, not much for playback. Very easy to use and records and plays back very nicely. There's one suggestion for you.

Lynx L22 would be my pick of soundcards:

http://www.lynxstudio.com/lynxl22.html

Of course, all the rage these days seems to be USB-dacs (which more and more manufacturers are releasing). Such dacs bypass any soundcard anyway.

As a professional recording engineer, I can tell you that the above mentioned Lynx is held in the highest esteem in recording circles. RME products are also excellent(what I use) but possibly slightly less highly regarded. Apogee is the other name at the top of the list, but will probably cost you 2-3x the price of the Lynx for the same quality.

The difference in sound quality between these and consumer/prosumer cards/DAC's is significant.

Lynx is absolute rubbish. Sorry to say that.

The drivers are absolutely hopeless introducing massive latency and they don't want to do anything about it!

We threw them out and replaced with RME which also runs on Linux.

I can tell you that the above mentioned Lynx is held in the highest esteem in recording circles