Here's My two cent's on all of the items you've listed :

>         1)      Flatbed scanner
>                 (decent quality, price / performance matters)

Scanners are getting chearper and cheaper.  6X9's can be had for anywhere
from $49-$199 here, after rebate.

>         2)      cdrom drive (scsi acceptable / preferable?)

Plextor, Like previousley mentioned, are solid, solid drives.  However, make
sure you look at VeloCD...same burnproof technology.

>         3)      cdrw (one that won't burn coasters)

ditto

>         4)      sound card (to replace a legacy pro audio spectrum)
>                 What kinds of sound cards are out there now?
>                 Does it make sense to get something fancy?
>                 The sound from the current card is not very good.
>                 It pops an crackles --- although I've heard complaints
>                 that this is a w2k issue.  (Is it worth  bothering to
>                 upgrade?)

.
 Minimally, you want the SoundBlaster Live! card, its about $50 OEM.  The
SBLive! 5.1 Platinum has SPDIF(RCA), Optical, and Midi I/O Ports on the
front panel, as well as having an IR remote.  Cost's about $250cdn though.
My ISA AWE32 pops and crackles under winME, when I had 2000 I was using via
codecs for audio. Wierd thing is, higher I push clock speed, the slower the
clicking gets.  At 600, its about twice a second, but at 900, it's almost
completly gone


>         5)      speakers --- again, is there any point in buying
>                 something more than the plain-vanilla offerings?
>                 I sometimes have the suspicion that fancier-looking
>                 computer speakers are just fancier-looking cases
>                 with the same cheap speakers inside.

For myself, no.  In my apartment my computer runs into the auxiliary inputs
on  my Sony stereo and pumps it through a Polk surround system.  Makes the
gaming kinda loud, but...it's so nice when people are over, just load a
playlist and leave it alone.  I work in the sound industry and need to hear
*good* sound (replacing that ISA card today!) but I don't know what your
preferences are.  Two excellent (if pricey) reccommendations I can make are
the Midiland
http://www.midiland.com/products/home_products.htm

and the Klipsch'

http://www.klipsch.com/

Check out the Pro-Media v.2-400.  I've ordered a few of those for friends,
and they sound great.

Cheers.

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