good sound card to hook to home theater?

Is there a a good sound card out there that I can hook up to my home theater receiver that sounds good? I'm building a new computer so I figured it was time to upgrade from my like 10 year old sound card. With my old card, it sounded really static-y and generally just bad. I've got a 6.1 receiver and speaker setup so I was thinking maybe a 6.1 card, but I don't know anything about which brands/models are good for sound cards. Thanks!

I woudlt then avoid Creative then if you're going to hook up a homeheather system. Try an m-audio; they're pretty popular and they tend to have different plug-ins such as optical........

E-MU Series.