Hi there! I was wondering if somebody here could give me some advice
for purchasing a decent monitoring system for a home project (albeit
one I take seriously).

Here's the situation:

I've recording music on an old-fashioned TASCAM 488 MKii 8-track
cassette studio. It's been a lot of fun. The music is intentionally
noisy, but richly textured.

When I finally mix this down to a computer hard drive, I need to make
sure I preserve the detail and subtlety of the music. (I've been
assuming that I can't really "preserve" what I can't even hear in the
studio.) I don't necessarily need to make it sound "realistic," but I
do want the music to sound rich. Think of it this way: let's say
you're hearing Hendrix playing some guitar feedback. Wouldn't you want
a mix that faithfully reproduces all the little shifts in texture that
guitar feedback can produce?

I defintely need to get a decent monitoring system, but since this
music is noisy, and the source is from a 488 MKii, I'm assuming that
even an EVENT 20/20 bas system would be overkill.

(I've been assuming I want powered speakers, but maybe a separate amp
with passive speakers would be a better idea. What do you think?)

I also realize that in the future I will probably use this system for
mixing/monitoring music that ISN'T as noisy, so I'll be happy to take
this into consideration, although I'd still like advice on what
monitoring system would be best for this specific project. By "best,"
I mean, "able to preserve the detail of the music without going
needless overboard in price for what is essentially really noisy music
anyway."

And for that matter, I'd like some sound card suggestions, too. Right
now I've only got onboard sound on my Intel board. I've assumed that
wouldn't be good enough, but I could be wrong. Again, I'm looking for
the best "bang for the buck" ratio in terms of subtelty and fidelity.

Thanks so much, everyone! I've been lurking in this group for a long
time. You clearly know your stuff.

Richard